Beyond the Old Frontier

go, except on the Pacific slope, it had few white inhabitants. Then it was the Far West, beyond the frontier, the Indian country-the unkn

tant country were the trading-posts to which the trapper brought his furs. Forts Garry, Benton, union, Laramie,

mers from New England, business men and clerks from the Middle States, planters and younger sons from the South; on foot and on horseback, carrying their possessions, large or scanty, in vehicles drawn by horses, mules, oxen, and cows, t

hten the loads dragged by their feeble teams. Along these deep-worn roads were the graves of those who had perished on the way; sometimes mere mounds of earth, hardly s

his courage in hunting for the gold that often he did not find. Montana also began to yield gold, and Salmon River and Alder Gulch were at the beginnings of their fame. Steam-boat traffic on the

egan to receive a sedentary population and to prepare for th

e sturdy Americans absorbed in the diverse problems which they have to meet, and, with astonishing success, devoting themselves to the solution of those problems. This is as it should be, yet it is worth while from time to time to take a look backward, and to consider what those endured who went before

to write and talk about this. What they said fell on sympathetic ears, and interest was easily aroused, so that before long in many of the Western States historical societies were established, and earnest men g

e filled with material of great interest-matter that will be of enormous value

oples. To subsist in these unknown lands they wereviii forced to hunt its animals, and the purpose which led them so far afield was the trading for furs. The book thus deals wi

ngs in this forgotten West, which is no