ted for the
Columbia River, while the one to which Carson was attached went into
camp where they were for the rest of the summer. With the approach of
warm weather the trapping season ended and they devoted themselves to
hunting and making ready for cold weather.

It will be borne in mind that Kit Carson was still a youth, not having
reached his majority. He was of short, compact stature, no more than
five feet, six inches tall, with light brown hair, gray eyes, large
head, high forehead, broad shoulders, full chest, strong and possessing
remarkable activity. Even at that early age, he had impressed the
veteran hunters and trappers around him as one possessing such
remarkable abilities, that, if his life was spared, he was certain to
become a man of mark. If we should attempt to specify the particular
excellencies in which he surpassed those around him, it would be said
that while Carson was one of the most fearless men who lived, yet he
possessed splendid judgment. He seemed to know instinctively what could
be accomplished by himself and friends in positions of extreme peril,
and he saw on the moment precisely how to do that which often was
impossible to others.

His knowledge of woodcraft and the peculiarities of the savage tribes
around him was as perfect as it could be. He was a matchless hunter,
and no man could handle a rifle with greater skill. The wilderness, the
mountains, the Indians, the wild animals--these constituted the sphere
in which nature intended Kit Carson should move and serve his fellow men
as no one before or after him has done.

Added to these extraordinary qualifications, was the crowning one of
all--modesty. Alas, how often transcendent merit is made repelling by
overweening conceit. Kit Carson would have given his life before he
would have travelled through the eastern cities, with his long hair
dangling about his shoulders, his clothing bristling with pistols and
knives, while he strutted on the mimic stage as a representative of the
untamed civilization of the great west.

Carson was a superior hunter when a boy in Missouri, and the experience
gained among the experienced hunters and trappers, soon caused him to
become noted by those who had fought red men, trapped beaver and shot
grizzly bears before he was born. And yet it could not have been that
alone: it must have been his superior mental capacity which caused those
heroes of a hundred perils to turn instinctively to him for counsel