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EOCKY MOUNTAIN LIFE. 



CHAPTER I 



Objects of a proposed excursion. — Primary plans and movements. — .\ digression 



Rendezvous for Oreg(m emigrants and Santa Fe traders. — Sensations on a firsl 

 visit to tlie border Prairies. — Frontier Indians. 



My purpose in visiting the Rocky Mountains, and countries adjacent, 

 having hitherto proved a Iruitful source of inquiry to the many persons 1 meet, 

 wlien aware of my iiaving devoted three years to travel in those remote 

 regions, and 1 am so plied with almost numberless other questions, I know 

 of no better way to dispose of them satisfactorily, than by doing what I 

 had thought of at the outset, to wit : writing a book. 



But, says one, more books have been already written upon subjects of a 

 kiiidred nature, tlian will ever find readers. True, indeed ; yet I must 

 venture one more ; and this much I promise at the start : it shall be different, 

 in most respects, from all that have preceded it ; and if I fail to produce an 

 agreeable variety of adventures, interwoven with a large fund of valuable 

 information, then I shall not have accomplished my purpose. 



Yet, 'why did I go? — what was my object?' Let me explain: Dame 

 Nature bestowed upon me lavishly that innate curiosity, and fondness for 

 things strange and new, of which every one is more or less possessed. 

 Phrenologists would declare my organ of Inquisitiveness to be larirely 

 developed ; and, certain it is, 1 have a great liking to tread upon unfre- 

 quented ground, and mingle among scenes at once novel and romantic. 

 Love of adventure, then, was the great prompter-, while an enfeebled state 

 of health sensibly admonished mo to seek in other parts tliat invigorating 

 air and -climate denied by the diseased atmosphere of a populous countr/. 

 I also wished to acquaint myself witli the geography of those comparatively 

 unexplored regions, — their geological character, curiosities, resources, and 

 natural advantages, together with tJieir real condition, present inhabitants, 

 inducements \g emigrants, and most favorable localities lor settlements, to 

 enable me tc speak from personal knowledge upon subjects so interesting 

 to the public ^jiind, at the present time, as are tlie above. Here, then, were 

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