Oct, 28, 1905.1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
34 7 
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' FREE TRADERS. 
One of the drawings by Charles M. Russell for “Sixty Years on the Plains.” Here enlarged from the size in which it appears in the book. 
3 confess it, even now. The carpenter made Zero a good 
olid wooden coffin, it was well ballasted with some bits 
f scrap iron, and at sundown the fore topsail was laid to 
le mast, the colors were half-masted and amid profound 
ilence all that was mortal of my poor faithful Zero was 
ommitled to the deep, and from captain to cabin boy on 
oard the brig Swallow all sincerely mourned the death 
f that faithful, beloved Eskimo dog of the Far North. 
B. S. OSBON. 
Sixty Years a Trapper." 
Away out in Montana, on the flanks of the Rocky 
fountains, lives the only survivor known to us of the 
‘Id race of free trappers, the men who perhaps more 
han any other class contributed to make this country 
■hat it is to-day. This man is “Uncle” Bill Hamilton, 
iorn in 1825, on the plains in 1842, trapper, Indian 
ghter, sign talker, scout and guide so long as there 
I 'ere fur, wild Indians, buffalo, Indian fighting, and a 
ountry not all cut up by roads and fences, as it is to- 
ay. It seems curious to think of a man still living who 
.'•as contemporary with old Bill Williams, Jim Baker, 
[arson, Bridger and a dozen other men whose names, 
ntil within a few years, were household words through- 
'Ut the West. In the hurry of immigration and of 
aisiness these men have been largely forgotten, and 
ave ceased to be talked about by the dwellers in that 
ast region which lies west of the Missouri. Their 
ames still live in the simple books which tell the his- 
ory of the early West, but their personalities are re- 
iiembered by but few. 
«[ W. T. Hamilton is one of these men. He is eighty- 
ff-iree years old, and from the time that he was twenty, 
I as spent his whole life on the plains and in the moun- 
|ihins of the West. He was a skilled trapper, is an 
liuthority on Indian manners and customs, and has 
long been acknowledged to be the most expert sign 
Hiker on the plains. He still makes a trip each year 
iito the mountains, and sets his traps with the same 
Ikill as in the days before California was known. 
I For many years Mr. Hamilton’s friends and acquaint- 
) nces have been urging him to set down in order the 
:|tory of a life which runs back into a past which now 
ieems so distant, and at last he has done so, in a 
iolume just issued, entitled “My Sixty Years on the 
i|flains.” As may be imagined, it is a story of ad- 
tenture. The trappers of those days were heroes, and 
I *My Sixty Years on the Plains. Trapping, Trading and 
^dian Fighting. By W. T. Hamilton (“Bill Hamilton”). Edited 
E. T. Sieber. With eight full-page illustrations by Charles M. 
Russell. New York, Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 1905. 
|rice, $1.50. 
no man had a place in the camp of trappers unles he 
was ready to do a man’s work. 
William T. Hamilton w'as born in Scotland in the 
year 1825, but reached New Orleans when less than 
three years old and spent his early years in St. Louis. 
His failing health induced his father to make arrange- 
ments with a party of eight free trappers, led by Bdl 
Williams and Perkins, by which the son should spend a 
year in the mountains, the son William having an in- 
terest in the outfit to the extent of one-third. Leaving 
Independence, Mo., in March, the party had been out 
only five days when they encountered Indians, and from 
that time on, except on the rare occasions when traders 
were met, or at the trappers’ ■ winter rendezvous, In- 
dians were almost the only human beings seen by the 
party. 
The first red men with whom they had friendly in- 
tercourse was a village of Cheyennes under the chiel 
White Antelope. The chief’s son. Swift Runner, who 
was about Hamilton’s age, took a great fancy to him. 
For a buffalo chase the chief’s son furnished Hamilton 
a good running horse, and here Hamilton had his first 
experience with buffalo. 
Of the ride he says: “There was yelling and shoot- 
ing in every direction; and many riderless ponies were 
mixed in with the buffalo, with Indians after them, 
reckless if they in turn were dismounted as their friends 
had been, by the ponies stepping into prairie dog or 
badger holes. Many an Indian' has come to grief by 
having an arm or leg broken in this way. Ponies are 
sure-footed, but in a run such as this one, where over a 
thousand buffalo are tearing at full speed over the 
prairie, a dust is created which makes it impossible for 
the ponies to see the holes, hence the mishaps, which 
are very common.” 
Of the Cheyennes he says: “The Cheyennes were and 
are to-day a proud and brave people. Their domestic 
habits were commendable and could be followed to ad- 
vantage by many white families.” When Hamilton 
parted with the Cheyennes, his young friend Swift Run- 
ner presented to him the pony that he had ridden in the 
chase, and for many years afterward this was Hamil- 
ton’s favorite war horse. 
In those days there was intense rivalry between the 
various fur companies and traders, all of whom wished 
to secure the furs taken by the free trappers, the most 
skillful men of the mountains. Interesting and amus- 
ing accounts are given of the keen trading between two 
classes of men, each striving to outdo the other. Mean- 
time, the trappers were constantly meeting Indians, 
Sioux, Crows. Shoshones, Pawnees and Blackfeet. The 
tales of Indian skirmishes and Indian battles are mod- 
estly related and are most interesting. One can im- 
agine what happened quite as much from what is left 
unsaid as from what is told. 
Most interesting and suggestive are the frequent 
matter-of-course references to the constant alertness of 
the trappers, and to the precaution constantly taken to. 
avoid being surprised No step looking toward safety 
was ever omitted. Each man knew what he should do, 
and did it. In fact, among a group of men of this type 
— picked men, the most skillful of their craft — the taking 
of precautions becomes a habit, and we do not wonder 
that, in their fighting with the Indians or in the diffi- 
cult situations in which they so often found themselves, * 
such men were almost always s-uccessful. 
Before he had been long on the plains, Hamilton had 
become a good sign talker, and this skill, together with 
his youth, greatly excited the curiosity of the Indians. ■ 
When they met_ the Shoshones the women continually 
asked him questions as to where he had come from and 
what tribe he had been raised with, evidently finding it 
difficult to believe that this was his first experience on 
the plains. 
A party of the Blackfeet that had attempted to steal 
the horses of Williams’ party and had been defeated, 
had killed two of five trappers the day before, and the 
plunder taken from the two had been recaptured by 
Williams’ party. This was returned to the three living 
men, who were a Frenchman, a Scotchman and a Ken- 
tuckian. A comment on these men is interesting to the 
reader of oldtime volumes of plains travels: “I found 
the Scotchman and the Kentuckian well educated men. 
The latter presented me with a copy of Shakespeare, and 
an ancient and modern history, which he had in the pack. 
W e had an abundance of reading matter with us — old 
mountain men were all great readers. It was always 
amusing to me to hear people from the East speak of 
mountaineers as semi- barbarians, when as a general 
rule they were the peers of the Easterners in general 
knowledge.” 
In those days the Blackfeet were the scourge of the ' 
trapper, and many of his conflicts were with some one 
of the divisions of this then powerful tribe. But there 
were other Indians, as yet ignorant of the white man - 
and his power, who threatened the trappers, demanded 
pay from them for passing through the country, and 
generally made themselves disagreeable. Occasionally ' 
the trappers came in conflict with these, and owing 
to their careful system of camping, standing guard, ancl ■ 
watching their property, they were always victorious;. 
Besides the long rifles which they used so effectively, 
each trapper carried a pair of the then new Colt’s re- 
volvers, and besides this, they had in their camp, for 
use at short range, several double-barreled shotguns, 
which, with the traditional load of buck and ball, were 
P 
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