66 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



thought would better please the spirit of the dead man 

 than vain regrets bloody and lasting revenge. 



Trampling down the earth which filled the grave, they 

 raised upon it a pile of heavy stones ; and packing their 

 mules once more, and taking a last look at their comrade's 

 lonely resting-place, they turned their backs upon the 

 stream, which has ever since been known as " Gonneville's 

 Creek." 



If the reader casts his eye over any of the recent maps 

 of the western country which detail the features of the 

 regions embracing the Rocky Mountains and the vast 

 prairies at their bases, he will not fail to observe that 

 many of the creeks or smaller streams which feed the 

 larger rivers as the Missouri, Platte, and Arkansa are 

 called by familiar proper names, both English and French. 

 These are invariably christened after some unfortunate 

 trapper killed there in Indian fight, or treacherously 

 slaughtered by the lurking savages, while engaged in trap- 

 ping beaver on the stream. Thus alone is the memory of 

 these hardy men perpetuated, at least of those whose fate 

 is ascertained ; for many, in every season, never return 

 from their hunting expeditions, but meet a sudden death 

 from Indians, or a more lingering fate from accident or 

 disease in some lonely gorge of the mountains, where no 

 footfall save their own, or the heavy tread of the grizzly 

 bear, disturbs the unbroken silence of the awful solitude. 

 Then, as many winters pass without some old familiar 

 faces making their appearance at the merry rendezvous, 

 their long-protracted absence may perhaps elicit a remark, 

 as to where such and such a mountain worthy can have 

 betaken himself ; to which the casual rejoinder of " Gone 

 under, maybe," too often gives a short but certain answer. 



In all the philosophy of hardened hearts, our hunters 

 turned from the spot where the unmourned trapper met 

 his death. La Bonte, however, not yet entirely steeled by 

 mountain life to a perfect indifference to human feeling, 

 drew his hard hand across his eye, as the unbidden tear 

 rose from his rough but kindly heart. He could not for- 

 get so soon the comrade he had lost ; the companion in 



