380 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



tains. Their whole time is passed in the pursuit 

 and destruction of the innumerable wild animals, 

 which for hundreds and thousands of years have 

 bred and multiplied in those remote steppes and 

 plains. They slay the buffalo for the sake of his 

 hump, and of the hide, out of which they make 

 their clothing; the bear to have his skin for a 

 bed ; the wolf for their amusement ; and the beaver 

 for his fur. In exchange for the spoils of these 

 animals they get lead and powder, flannel shirts 

 and jackets, string for their nets, and whisky to 

 keep out the cold. They traverse those endless 

 wastes in bodies several hundreds strong, and have 

 often desperate and bloody fights with the Indians. 

 For the most part, however, they form themselves 

 into parties of eight or ten men, a sort of wild 

 guerillas. These must rather be called hunters than 

 trappers the genuine trapper limiting himself to 

 the society of one sworn friend, with whom he re- 

 mains out for at least a year, frequently longer ; for 

 it takes a considerable time to become acquainted 

 with the haunts of the beaver. If one of the two 

 comrades dies, the other remains in possession of the 

 whole of their booty. The mode of life that is at 

 first adopted from necessity, or through fear of the 

 laws, is after a time adhered to from choice ; and few 

 of these men would exchange their wild, lawless, un- 

 limited freedom, for the most advantageous position 

 that could be offered them in a civilised country. 



