IN THE OLD WEST 135 



all traces of civilized humanity, and might justly 

 claim to be considered 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 abundant, and trapped their way west- 

 ward until they came upon the famed locality of 

 the Beer and Soda Springs — natural fountains 

 of mineral water, renowned amongst the trappers 

 as being " medicine " of the first order. 



Arriving one evening, about sundown, at the 

 Bear Spring, they found a solitary trapper sit- 

 ting over the rocky basin, intently regarding, 

 with no little awe, the curious phenomenon of the 

 bubbling gas. Behind him were piled his saddles 

 and a pack of skins, and at a little distance a 

 hobbled Indian pony fed amongst the cedars which 

 formed a grove round the spring. As the three 

 hunters dismounted from their animals, the lone 

 trapper scarcely noticed their arrival, his eyes 

 being still intently fixed upon the water. Look- 

 ing round at last, he was instantly recognized 



