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[Illustration: With eye and ear alert the man paddles silently on. (_See
page 105._)]




_THE STORY OF THE WEST SERIES_

_EDITED BY RIPLEY HITCHCOCK_

THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER

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The Story of the West Series.

EDITED BY RIPLEY HITCHCOCK.

Each Illustrated, 12mo, Cloth.


+The Story of the Railroad.+

By CY WARMAN, Author of "The Express Messenger." $1.50.

+The Story of the Cowboy.+

By E. HOUGH. Illustrated by William L. Wells and C. M. Russell. $1.50.

+The Story of the Mine.+

Illustrated by the Great Comstock Lode of Nevada.

By CHARLES HOWARD SHINN. $1.50.

+The Story of the Indian.+

By GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, Author of "Pawnee Hero Stories," "Blackfoot
Lodge Tales," etc. $1.50.

+The Story of the Soldier.+

By Brevet Brigadier-General GEORGE A. FORSYTH, U. S. A. (retired).
Illustrated by R. F. Zogbaum. $1.50.

+The Story of the Trapper.+

By A. C. LAUT, Author of "Heralds of Empire." Illustrated by Hemment.
$1.25 net; postage, 12 cents additional.


D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.


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  THE STORY
  OF THE TRAPPER

  BY

  A. C. LAUT

  AUTHOR OF HERALDS OF EMPIRE
  AND LORDS OF THE NORTH

  _ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR HEMING
  AND OTHERS_

  [Illustration]

  NEW YORK AND LONDON

  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

  1916


  COPYRIGHT, 1902

  BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

  Printed in the United States of America


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TO ALL WHO KNOW

THE GIPSY YEARNING FOR THE WILDS


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EDITOR'S PREFACE


The picturesque figure of the trapper follows close behind the Indian in
the unfolding of the panorama of the West. There is the explorer, but
the trapper himself preceded the explorers--witness Lewis's and Clark's
meetings with trappers on their journey. The trapper's hard-earned
knowledge of the vast empire lying beyond the Missouri was utilized by
later comers, or in a large part died with him, leaving occasional
records in the documents of fur companies, or reports of military
expeditions, or here and there in the name of a pass, a stream, a
mountain, or a fort. His adventurous warfare upon the wild things of the
woods and streams was the expression of a primitive instinct old as the
history of mankind. The development of the motives which led the first
pioneer trappers afield from the days of the first Eastern settlements,
the industrial organizations which followed, the commanding commercial
results which were evolved from the trafficking of Radisson and
Groseillers in the North, the rise of the great Hudson's Bay Company,
and the American enterprise which led, among other results, to the
foundation of the Astor fortunes, would form no inconsiderable part of a
history of North America. The present volume aims simply to show the
type-character of the Western trapper, and to sketch in a series of
pictures the checkered life of this adventurer of the wilderness.

The trapper of the early West was a composite figure. From the Northeast
came a splendid succession of French explorers like La Verendrye, with
_coureurs des bois_, and a multitude of daring trappers and traders
pushing west and south. From the south the Spaniard, illustrated in
figures like Garces and others, held out hands which rarely grasped the
waiting commerce. From the north and northeast there was the steady
advance of the sturdy Scotch and English, typified in the deeds of the
Henrys, Thompson, MacKenzie, and the leaders of the organized fur trade,
explorers, traders, captains of industry, carrying the flags of the
Hudson's Bay and North-West Fur companies across Northern America to the
Pacific. On the far Northwestern coast the Russian appeared as fur
trader in the middle of the eighteenth century, and the close of the
century saw the merchants of Boston claiming their share of the fur
traffic of that coast. The American trapper becomes a conspicuous figure
in the early years of the nineteenth century. The emporium of his
traffic was St. Louis, and the period of its greatest importance and
prosperity began soon after the Louisiana Purchase and continued for
forty years. The complete history of the American fur trade of the far
West has been written by Captain H. M. Chittenden in volumes which will
be included among the classics of early Western history. Although his
history is a publication designed for limited circulation, no student or
specialist in this field can fail to appreciate the value of his
faithful and comprehensive work.

In The Story of the Trapper there is presented for the general reader a
vivid picture of an adventurous figure, which is painted with a
singleness of purpose and a distinctness impossible of realization in
the large and detailed histories of the American fur trade and the
Hudson's Bay and North-West companies, or the various special relations
and journals and narratives. The author's wilderness lore and her
knowledge of the life, added to her acquaintance with its literature,
have borne fruit in a personification of the Western and Northern
trappers who live in her pages. It is the man whom we follow not merely
in the evolution of the Western fur traffic, but also in the course of
his strange life in the wilds, his adventures, and the contest of his
craft against the cunning of his quarry. It is a most picturesque figure
which is sketched in these pages with the etcher's art that selects
essentials while boldly disregarding details. This figure as it is
outlined here will be new and strange to the majority of readers, and
the relish of its piquant flavour will make its own appeal. A strange
chapter in history is outlined for those who would gain an insight into
the factors which had to do with the building of the West. Woodcraft,
exemplified in the calling of its most skilful devotees, is painted in
pictures which breathe the very atmosphere of that life of stream and
forest which has not lost its appeal even in these days of urban
centralization. The flash of the paddle, the crack of the rifle, the
stealthy tracking of wild beasts, the fearless contest of man against
brute and savage, may be followed throughout a narrative which is
constant in its fresh and personal interest.

The Hudson's Bay Company still flourishes, and there is still an
American fur trade; but the golden days are past, and the heroic age of
the American trapper in the West belongs to a bygone time. Even more
than the cowboy, his is a fading figure, dimly realized by his
successors. It is time to tell his story, to show what manner of man he
was, and to preserve for a different age the adventurous character of a
Romany of the wilderness, fascinating in the picturesqueness and daring
of his primeval life, and also, judged by more practical standards, a
figure of serious historical import in his relations to exploration and
commerce, and even affairs of politics and state.

If, therefore, we take the trapper as a typical figure in the early
exploitation of an empire, his larger significance may be held of far
more consequence to us than the excesses and lawlessness so frequent in
his life. He was often an adventurer pure and simple. The record of his
dealings with the red man and with white competitors is darkened by many
stains. His return from his lonely journeys afield brought an outbreak
of license like that of the cowboy