JACK, THE YOUNG TRAPPER
_By the same Author_
JACK THE YOUNG COWBOY
JACK THE YOUNG TRAPPER
JACK THE YOUNG CANOEMAN
JACK THE YOUNG EXPLORER
JACK IN THE ROCKIES
JACK AMONG THE INDIANS
JACK THE YOUNG RANCHMAN
PAWNEE HERO STORIES AND FOLK TALES
BLACKFOOT LODGE TALES
THE STORY OF THE INDIAN
THE INDIANS OF TO-DAY
THE PUNISHMENT OF THE STINGY
AMERICAN DUCK SHOOTING
AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING
TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS
[Illustration: "WE'VE GOT A BEAVER, I RECKON."--_Page 171._]
JACK
THE YOUNG TRAPPER
_An Eastern Boy's Fur Hunting
in the Rocky Mountains_
BY
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL
Author of "Jack the Young Ranchman," "Jack Among the Indians," "Jack
in the Rockies," "Jack the Young Canoeman," "Pawnee Hero Stories,"
"Blackfoot Lodge Tales," "The Story of the Indian,"
"The Indian of To-day," etc.
ILLUSTRATED BY WALTER KING STONE
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
Twelfth Printing, January 22, 1936
_Printed in the United States of America_
FOREWORD
A century ago the western half of the American Continent was unknown.
Vast herds of buffalo and antelope swarmed over its rolling plains; elk
and deer fed along its rivers; wild sheep and white goats clambered
over its rocky heights; bears prowled through its forests; beavers
built their dams and houses along every stream. Occasionally a group of
Indians passed over the plains or threaded the defiles of the mountain
ranges.
A few years later the white man began to penetrate this wilderness.
Beaver were growing scarcer, and men were forced to go further for
them. So the trapper entered these unknown fastnesses and began his
work. He followed up stream after stream, sought out remote valleys,
crossed deserts. With rifle in one hand and trap in the other, he
endured every hardship and exposed himself to every danger. He swam
rivers, climbed mountains, fought Indians, and risked life in his
struggle for fur.
They were men of firm courage and stern resolution, those trappers of
the early days. About their life and their work there is a romance and
a charm that appeal powerfully to the imagination. Jack Danvers was
fortunate in that the man who taught him some of the secrets of that
now forgotten life was one who had borne a part in the work of subduing
the wild west, and in laying the foundations upon which its present
civilization is built.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A COUNCIL OF WAR 1
II. A PLEASANT SPRING RIDE 9
III. AN EXPEDITION FOR FUR 18
IV. MAKING READY FOR THE TRIP 27
V. THE START FOR NORTH PARK 37
VI. TO LARAMIE AND NORTH PARK 48
VII. A TALK ABOUT BEAVER 60
VIII. THE WATER FOWLS' SUMMER HOME 73
IX. A TROUBLESOME GRIZZLY 83
X. A BIG BEAVER MEADOW 95
XI. INDIAN BEAVER LORE 113
XII. PROSPECTING FOR FUR 126
XIII. A LION'S LEAP 140
XIV. SETTING FOR BEAVER 155
XV. THEY SKIN BEAVER 170
XVI. OFF FOR NEW TRAPPING GROUND 191
XVII. TRAPPING THE MINK 209
XVIII. THE ENGLISH PILGRIMS 228
XIX. THE FIRST BIGHORN 246
XX. DANGER FROM THE UTES 264
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"WE'VE GOT A BEAVER, I RECKON" _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
TWO BOB-CATS PULLING AND TEARING AT SOME SMALL
THING ON THE GROUND 106
A BEAVER APPEARED WITH A LONG STICK, WHICH HE
PLACED WITH OTHERS ON THE ROOF 130
A BEAR, SITTING ON HER HAUNCHES, WAS LOOKING ALMOST
DIRECTLY AT THEM 186
CHAPTER I
A COUNCIL OF WAR
"Well, Jack," said Mr. Sturgis, "I am glad to see you back again."
"Indeed, Uncle George, you can bet I am glad to get back," replied
Jack. "I tell you it just made my heart rise up to ride over the
prairie to-day; it seemed to me that I never smelt anything so good as
the odor of the sage, and the little birds that kept getting up out of
the road and flying ahead of the team and alighting again, seemed like
old friends. Then we saw some antelope and a coyote or two. I tell you
it was bully. It seemed mighty good, too, to see Hugh after all these
months."
"Well," said Mr. Sturgis, "it is good to get you back, and I hope you
will have a good summer. Have you thought of what you want to do?"
Jack shook his head. "No," he said, "I have not; it is good enough to
be back. As soon as this storm is over I want to go out and take a ride
and see the country again."
"Oh, this snow won't last long, though it's a pretty rough night now.
Where were you on the road when it began to snow?" asked Mr. Sturgis.
"We were just about half through the Little Basin," said his nephew.
"Hugh had been looking at the sky for quite a little while back,
and said that it was going to snow. We drove pretty fast from the
Troublesome until we got into the Big Basin; the snow didn't get very
deep until about three or four miles back from here. From there on we
had pretty slow driving."
"Well," said Mr. Sturgis, "suppose you go out and see if you can find
Hugh, and ask him if he will come in here and sit with us for a little
while; I want to talk with you both."
"All right," replied Jack, and he disappeared in the direction of the
ranch kitchen.
It was about the middle of the month of May, and Jack Danvers, after a
winter of hard work at school in the East, had come out by the Union
Pacific Railroad to spend the summer at his uncle's ranch. His old
friend, Hugh Johnson, had met him at the railroad station with a team
of horses hitched to a spring-wagon, and the greater part of the drive
of forty miles out to the ranch had been made in record time. Then it
had begun to snow and blow furiously, and the last few miles of the
distance had been passed over much more slowly. In these high altitudes
in the Rocky Mountains, snowstorms are common in May and June; yet,
though the snow may fall deep at such times, it lies on the ground for
but a short time.
Jack and his uncle had been talking after supper in the comfortable
sitting room of the ranch; a fire of dry aspen logs burned merrily in
the large, open fireplace, and their cheerful crackling contrasted
pleasantly with the howling of the wind without.
As Mr. Sturgis sat filling his pipe in front of the fire, he looked
back over the years which had elapsed since he first began to take an
active, vivid interest in this nephew of his. He remembered him as a
small, pale, shrunken slip of a boy, who spent all his time curled
up in a chair, devouring books; a boy seemingly without vitality and
without any special interest in life. He remembered how the boy woke
up and became alert when he had first spoken to him of the possibility
of a trip to the West. How the little fellow had wondered at and
enjoyed all the different incidents of life on a cow ranch; and how
Hugh Johnson had taken to him, and instructed him in the lore of the
prairies and mountains, in which Hugh was so well versed; and how year
after year the boy had grown and strengthened, until now he was a young
fellow of great promise. Within a few years the boy had changed from a
child to something very like a man. While he was going over these years
in his mind, Mr. Sturgis heard steps in the passage without, and then
Jack's voice, and a moment later the door opened and Hugh Johnson and
Jack stepped into the room.
"Sit down, Hugh," said Mr. Sturgis, "and fill your pipe; I want to talk
with you. You sit down, too, Jack. We have matters to discuss which
will be interesting to both of you, I think. It was pretty hard hauling
this afternoon, wasn't it?" he continued, addressing Hugh.
"Well, yes, Mr. Sturgis, it was so"; said the old man. "The snow
finally got so deep that I would not force the horses. They are strong,
and are willing, and they might have trotted, but we wasn't trying to
catch a train, and they balled up pretty well in this wet snow, and I
was afraid that they might slip and strain something. I reckon I told
you that I had shod both of them, didn't I, when you said that you
wanted me to go in for Jack?"
"No," said Mr. Sturgis, "I don't remember that you did, but it was a
good thing to shoe them; the roads between here and town are cruel on
horses' feet, and, while one trip won't wear down a team's feet, still,
they have work to do all summer, and there is so much gravel in this
soil that their feet would be bound to get tender before summer is
over."
"Well," replied Hugh, "that's just the way I think. A pair of shoes in
front will last them pretty nearly all summer, and when they are shod
we know they won't get tender."
While he had been talking, Hugh had whittled himself some tobacco,
ground it fine between the palms of his hands, filled his pipe and lit
it, and now he sat comfortably by the blaze, with his head encircled by
a smoke wreath.
"Well, Hugh," said Mr. Sturgis, "I asked you to come in here so that we
could talk about what you and Jack are going to do this summer."
"Well," said Hugh, "that's for you to say, I reckon. I'm working for
you--at least I'm supposed to be working for you, but it seems to me
that for the last three or four years I haven't been doing much work,
because I've been off playing with Jack every summer. Lord, son," he
continued with a smile, "what great travelers you and me are getting to
be! First we went up to the Blackfeet and played with them a season;
that's when you counted your first coup; and then we went up with them
another year, and came down south through the mountains and saw all
them hot springs in that country, that they used to call Coulter's
Hell, in old times; and then last year we went out to the big water in
the west and paddled around in the salt water and got fish. You and me
surely have got to be great travelers."
"Well, Hugh," said Mr. Sturgis, "I guess we will have to think up
something for this year. Of course, you and Jack could sit around and
look after the stock, just as the rest of us do here on the ranch,
but I believe it would be better for you to go off and make a trip by
yourselves. What do you think?"
"Well, Mr. Sturgis," said Hugh, "it really would be pleasant to go off
and make a long trip, and there's lots of good country left yet that
Jack has not seen, but I don't think I get exactly what you mean. If
you will speak a little plainer I will understand better."
"It is like this, Hugh," said Mr. Sturgis; "Jack is out here for the
summer, and I want him to have a good time, and to see as much as he
can of what there is in this country. It is all beginning to change
here so fast that I am afraid the first thing we know the country
will be full of people, and every time you want to ride off in some
direction you will have to turn out for a wire fence, or you will get
lost because there are so many roads running over the prairie. Where do
you suppose you could take Jack this summer so as to give him a good
time? Of course, I don't want you to take any chances, or to go where
there is any danger, but, then, I know you won't do that, so I needn't
speak about it."
For some moments Hugh sat silently puffing at his pipe and staring
into the fireplace, while Jack, on his left hand, watched his face
with absorbed interest, wondering what he would say. Presently he
raised his head, and turning to Mr. Sturgis, said, "Well, Mr. Sturgis,
there's a mighty nice trip to be made in the high mountains down to the
southward. It's a country where there's no possible danger that I can
see, though, as you know, it's only a little while ago that the Utes
wiped out Major Thornburgh's command. Now everything is peaceable, and
likely to remain so, I reckon."
"Where do you mean, Hugh," said Mr. Sturgis, "down in the Parks of
Colorado?"
"Yes, sir, that's what I mean. It's a great hunting ground down there
still, and besides that, it is a fur country. I have been through there
many times, and I never saw any place in the southern country where
beaver were so plenty; besides that, as you know, it is up in the high
mountains and the fur is good till midsummer. If you all think well
of it, Jack and I could go down there and spend a couple of months
trapping beaver, and if we have good luck, we might make quite a stake.
We wouldn't need to carry much in the way of grub, for the country is
full of game, and there are even some bison down there, though it
ain't likely that we would get to see any of them. I don't know of any
prettier mountains, or where you can live better than you can down
there; deer, elk, antelope, sheep, trout, and birds, till you can't
rest. That seems to me about the nicest trip one could make without
going off far; what do you say to it?"
"That sounds good to me, Hugh," said Mr. Sturgis. "What do you think
about it, Jack?"
"Why," said Jack, "it sounds awful good to me. I never thought of
making a trip this year. I just thought that I was to come out here and
loaf around the ranch, and hunt, and help with the stock."
"No," said Mr. Sturgis, "I think it is better for you to be off in the
mountains by yourselves, and if Hugh's plan suits you, it suits me, and
you can say that it can be carried out."
"Splendid!" exclaimed Jack.
"But, Hugh," Mr. Sturgis went on, "what's the shortest way to get
there; and how would you go?"
"Well," said Hugh, "if we should go, I'd say the best way to do would
be to take two or three pack horses and start from here with them. Of
course, you can drive a wagon all the way down there, through North and
Middle and South Park, but I wouldn't want to take a wagon if I could
help it. If you wanted to go up in the mountains, why, you'd have to
come back to that wagon. You can't make any cut-offs, or short side
trips; you've always got to get back to your wagon again. I say, take
some pack animals, and then you will be perfectly foot-loose, and can
go where you want to and as far as you want to. If I should go that
way, I would start from here, go down the Muddy, cross the Medicine
Bow, follow up Rock Creek, and cross over to the Laramie, and follow
up the Laramie until I got into North Park. From there, it's plain
sailing, either through the valley or among the mountains. Son, here,
is a good packer, and with a simple outfit like that we can make good
time."
"Then, when you get into the high mountains," said Mr. Sturgis, "you
think you can get some beaver, do you?"
"Yes," assented Hugh, "unless things have changed there almightily
within a few years. The last time I came through there, I was looking
for beaver sign and it seemed to me that all the streams up the
mountains were full of beaver, and, as I say, up there in that high
country they hold their coats well, and you can trap them until July or
August. Indeed, I have known of men that trapped right on through the
whole summer, but I don't think it's a good thing to do."
"Is there any other fur there?" said Mr. Sturgis.
"Not much else," answered Hugh. "Of course, there are some marten, and
now and then a wolverine or two, but you can't get them until the snow
comes. Mink are not worth much, and otter are so few that you might as
well count them out of the question, too; but there are some bears; in
fact there should be a good many bears, and their coats are good until
July; but if we are going to trap, beaver are what we would have to
depend upon. Maybe we might catch a bear or two in a dead fall, but
I wouldn't bother to take along one of those big steel traps on the
chance of getting one or two hides with it. Those traps are not worth
bothering with if you have a long way to go. They are all right to set
around the ranch, if you think you need a bear hide, or if you have got
a wagon to drive around in, but I have no use for them on a pack. I
have heard lately that some of these pilgrims that come from the East
and are stuck on getting bears, put out baits and set traps near them,
but I never could see any fun in that sort of thing. If you want to
hunt bears, why, hunt them, and prove that you are more cunning and
skillful than they are. It's no fun to set a trap, and then when a bear
gets into it to crawl up and shoot it. It is some fun to get the best
of the shyest and wildest animal that goes on four legs, but I don't
see where the fun comes in in trapping them, and then crawling up on
them and killing them. It's too much like chopping a chicken's head
off--and that wouldn't be very much fun for any of us."
"I agree with you, Hugh," said Mr. Sturgis; "but you know there are all
sorts of people back East, just as there are all sorts of people here,
and some of those men who come out to hunt, take back great stories
about the bears that they have trapped, and about the danger that they
were in when they killed the bear. Of course, that does not seem to us
very honest, but there are braggarts all over the world."
"That's so, Mr. Sturgis," said Hugh. "I guess the frauds are not
confined to any one part of the country; you find them 'most
everywhere."
"So you do, Hugh," said Mr. Sturgis, as he knocked out his pipe against
the stones of the fireplace.
"Well," he went on, "about the trip that you and Jack are going to
make. Let's think it over for a day or two, and if it still seems good
to you, the sooner you start the better."
"Very well," said Hugh. "The sooner we get started the better the fur
will be, and the longer it will last. We'll chew on it for a day or
two, son, and see what we can make out of it." So saying, Hugh rose
from his seat, knocked out his pipe, and saying good-night to Mr.
Sturgis, disappeared down the passage.
Before long Jack and his uncle went to bed--Jack to dream of the
glories of the trip, and the beaver he was to trap.