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
"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," "Jackin 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
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 Continentwas unknown. Vast herds of buffalo and antelopeswarmed over its rolling plains; elk and deer fedalong its rivers; wild sheep and white goats clamberedover its rocky heights; bears prowled through itsforests; beavers built their dams and houses along everystream. Occasionally a group of Indians passed overthe plains or threaded the defiles of the mountainranges.
A few years later the white man began to penetratethis wilderness. Beaver were growing scarcer, andmen were forced to go further for them. So the trapperentered these unknown fastnesses and began hiswork. He followed up stream after stream, soughtout remote valleys, crossed deserts. With rifle in onehand and trap in the other, he endured every hardshipand exposed himself to every danger. He swamrivers, climbed mountains, fought Indians, and riskedlife in his struggle for fur.
They were men of firm courage and stern resolution,those trappers of the early days. About their life andtheir work there is a romance and a charm that appealpowe