A HUNTER'S ADVENTURES, 



CHAPTEE I. 



MONTANA SOIL, CLIMATE, AND APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY 



MINERAL WEALTH LAST HOME OF THE RED MAN TRAVELLERS 



IN A SORRY PLIGHT THE CAMP-FIRE WAKING DREAMS ARDUOUS 



AND FATIGUING TRAVELLING FAITHFUL COMPANIONS SOLITUDES. 



ALMOST in the centre of the vast continent of North 

 America is situated an immense extent of country 

 called Montana, the interior of which was but little 

 known a few years since beyond what had been 

 gathered from information afforded by adventurous 

 white trappers, Indian traders, and small surveying 

 parties in search of possible rail or telegraph routes 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 



Although this is now a portion of the United States, 

 it is more than probable that, from its geographical 

 position, the absence of navigable rivers, the rough- 

 ness of its surface, and the hostility of the abori- 

 gines, it will still be many years before the advance 

 of civilisation materially affects it ; for it does not 

 hold out to the emigrant those inducements which 

 promise remuneration for the cultivation of the earth. 

 Neither is the climate of a nature likely to attract 



B 



