pa ee 
The Yearly the sufferings and privations of a year spent in the 
wilderness. With their hairy bank notes, the beaver 
skins, they can obtain all the luxuries of the moun- 
tains, and live for a few days like lords. Coffee and 
chocolate is cooked; the pipe is kept aglow day and 
night; the spirits circulate; and whatever is not spent 
in such ways the squaws coax out of them, or else 
it is squandered at cards. Formerly single trappers 
on such occasions have often wasted a thousand dol- 
lars. But the days of their glory seem to be past, for 
constant hunting has very much reduced the number 
of beavers. This diminution in the beaver catch made 
itself noticeable at this year’s rendezvous in the 
quieter behavior of the trappers. There was little 
drinking of spirits, and almost no gambling. An- 
other decade perhaps and the original trapper will 
have disappeared from the mountains. 
The Indians who had come to the meeting were 
no less interesting than the trappers. There must 
have been some thousands of them. Their tents are 
made of buffalo hides, tanned on both sides and 
sewed together, stretched in cone shape over a dozen 
poles, that are leaned against each other, their tops 
crossing. In front and on top this leather can be 
thrown back, to form door and chimney. The tents 
are about twelve feet high and twenty feet in circum- 
ference at the ground, and give sufficient protection 
in any kind of weather. I visited many tents, partly 
out of curiosity, partly to barter for trifles, and 
sought to make myself intelligible in the language of 
