LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 71 



ready to meet their trappers, and purchase the beaver at 

 an equitable value ; and soon the trade opened, and the 

 encampment assumed a busy appearance. 



A curious assemblage did the rendezvous present, and 

 representatives of many a land met there. A son of la belle 

 France here lit his pipe from one proffered by a native of 

 New Mexico. An Englishman and a Sandwich Islander 

 cut a quid from the same plug of tobacco. A Swede and 

 an "old Virginian" puffed together. A Shawanee blew 

 a peaceful cloud with a scion of the " Six Nations." One 

 from the Land of Cakes a canny chiel sought to " great 

 round" (in trade) a right "smart" Yankee, but couldn't 

 " shine." 



The beaver went briskly, six dollars being the price paid 

 per Ib. in goods for money is seldom given in the moun- 

 tain market, where " beaver " is cash, for which the articles 

 supplied by the traders are bartered. In a very short time 

 peltries of every description had changed hands, either by 

 trade, or by gambling with cards and betting. With the 

 mountain -men bets decide every question that is raised, 

 even the most trivial ; and if the editor of ' Bell's Life' were 

 to pay one of these rendezvous a winter visit, he would 

 find the broad sheet of his paper hardly capacious enough 

 to answer all the questions which would be referred to his 

 decision. 



Before the winter was over, La Bonte had lost all traces 

 of civilised humanity, and might justly claim to be con- 

 sidered as " hard a case " as any of the mountaineers then 

 present. Long before the spring opened, he had lost all the 

 produce of his hunt and both his animals, which, however, 

 by a stroke of luck, he recovered, and wisely " held on to " 

 for the future. Right glad when spring appeared, he started 

 from Brown's Hole, with four companions, to hunt the 

 Uintah or Snake country, and the affluents of the larger 

 streams which rise in that region and fall into the Gulf of 

 California. 



In the valley of the Bear River they found beaver abun- 

 dant, and trapped their way westward until they came 

 upon the famed locality of the Beer and Soda Springs 



