Beginning 
— I22-— 
weighs usually from one to two pounds; but there are 
some of three pounds weight. About sixty beaver 
skins are bound together in a pack. Two such packs 
make an ordinary load for a mule. The Hudson’s 
Bay Company has established more system in beaver 
trapping within its territories. It allows trapping 
only at certain seasons, and when beavers get scarce in 
any neighborhood, trapping is strictly forbidden there 
for some years. In regions, however, on whose per- 
_ manent possession the company does not count, it al- 
lows the trappers to do as they please. But if trap- 
ping is carried on in this ruthless fashion, in fifty years 
all the beavers there will have disappeared, as have 
those in the east, and the country will thereby lose a 
productive branch of commerce. 
On the third day after leaving Fort Hall we came 
again to the Beer Spring. The day was hot; so much 
the more refreshing the water. In front of us sev- 
eral smoke wreaths arose. We had also discovered 
other signs of Indians that were ahead of us. Nev- 
ertheless, we slept without sense of danger. Our 
party was too small to permit of a night watch. Ex- 
ertion by day and by night would have exhausted us 
too much. The only precaution we took was to tie 
our animals at night close by; for the rest we relied 
on good fortune. That we kept our guns in prime 
condition is a matter of course. On such journeys 
one gets habituated to his rifle as to a trusty traveling 
companion. During the march the gun lies across 
the saddle; when one rests it is always close at hand. 
