46 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



Sprung, then, out of the wild and adventurous fur-trade, 

 St Louis, still the emporium of that species of commerce, 

 preserves even now, in the character of its population, 

 many of the marked peculiarities distinguishing its early 

 founders, who were identified with the primitive Indian 

 in hardihood and instinctive wisdom. Whilst the French 

 portion of the population retain the thoughtless levity and 

 frivolous disposition of their original source, the Americans 

 of St Louis, who may lay claim to be native, as it were, are 

 as strongly distinguished for determination and energy of 

 character as they are for physical strength and animal 

 courage ; and are remarkable, at the same time, for a 

 singular aptitude in carrying out commercial enterprises to 

 successful terminations, apparently incompatible with the 

 thirst of adventure and excitement which forms so promi- 

 nent a feature in their character. In St Louis and with 

 her merchants have originated many commercial enterprises 

 of gigantic speculation, not confined to the immediate 

 locality or to the distant Indian fur-trade, but embracing 

 all parts of the continent, and even a portion of the Old 

 World. And here it must be remembered that St Louis is 

 situated inland, at a distance of upwards of one thousand 

 miles from the sea, and three thousand from the capital of 

 the United States. 



Besides her merchants and upper class, who form a little 

 aristocracy even here, a large portion of her population, 

 still connected with the Indian and fur trade, preserve all 

 their original characteristics, unacted upon by the influence 

 of advancing civilisation. There is, moreover, a large float- 

 ing population of foreigners of all nations, who must pos- 

 sess no little amount of enterprise to be tempted to this 

 spot, whence they spread over the remote western tracts, 

 still infested by the savage ; so that, if any of their blood 

 is infused into the native population, the characteristic 

 energy and enterprise is increased, and not tempered down 

 by the foreign cross. 



But perhaps the most singular of the casual population 

 are the mountaineers, who, after several seasons spent in 

 trapping, and with good store of dollars, arrive from the 



