LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 103 



which are included in the Indian category of female duties. 

 Thus he was esteemed an excellent parti by all the mar- 

 riageable young squaws of Blackfoot, Crow, and Shoshone, 

 of Yutah, Shian, and Arapaho ; but after his last connubial 

 catastrophe, he steeled his heart against all the charms and 

 coquetry of Indian belles, and persevered in unblessed 

 widowhood for many a long day. 



From the point where we left him on his way to the 

 waters of the Columbia, we must jump with him over a 

 space of nearly two years, during which time he had 

 a most uninterrupted run of good luck ; trapping with 

 great success on the head-streams of the Columbia and 

 Yellow Stone the most dangerous of trapping-ground 

 and finding good market for his peltries at the " North- 

 West" posts beaver fetching as high a price as five 

 and six dollars a " plew " the " golden age " of trappers, 

 now, alas ! never to return, and existing only in the 

 fond memory of the mountaineers. This glorious time, 

 however, was too good to last. In mountain language, 

 "such heap of fat meat was not going to 'shine' much 

 longer." 



La Bont was at this time one of a band of eight trap- 

 pers, whose hunting-ground was about the head-waters of 

 the Yellow Stone, which we have before said is in the 

 country of the Blackfeet. With him were Killbuck, Meek, 

 Marcellin, and three others ; and the leader of the party 

 was Bill Williams, that old " hardcase " who had spent 

 forty years and more in the mountains, until he had be- 

 become as tough as the parfleche soles of his mocassins. 

 They were all good men and true, expert hunters, and 

 well-trained mountaineers. After having trapped all the 

 streams they were acquainted with, it was determined to 

 strike into the mountains, at a point where old Williams 

 affirmed, from the "run" of the hills, there must be plenty 

 of water, although not one of the party had before ex- 

 plored the country, or knew anything of its nature, or of 

 the likelihood of its affording game for themselves or 

 pasture for their animals. However, they packed their 

 peltry, and put out for the land in view a lofty peak, 





