d.
Though there were often treeless prairies, whose bleak expanse they must
traverse, all the streams, even the smallest, were fringed with forests.
Suitable precaution would enable them every night to obtain the shelter of
some one of these groves. They were almost certain during the day to
obtain all the game they would need. A couple of hours' work with their
axes, would enable them to rear a sufficient shelter for the night. With
an immense fire roaring, and crackling, and throwing out its genial warmth
in front of their camp, they could, wrapped in their furs and with their
feet to the fire, enjoy all the comfort which the pioneers of the
wilderness could desire. No matter how dismally the wintry storm might
wail through the tree-tops, no matter how fiercely the smothering,
drifting snow-storm might sweep the prairie, they, in their warm and
illuminated cabins, could bid defiance alike to gale and drift. Their
hardy animals, ever accustomed to unsheltered life in winter as well as
summer, knew well how to find the grass beneath the snow, or to browse
upon the succulent foliage.

The journey, though it proved very toilsome, was successfully
accomplished. Captain Lee, with Carson, and their accompanying band,
having reached the Snake river encampment, readily sold all his goods,
taking his pay in beaver skins. With his rich purchase packed upon the
backs of his horses, he returned to Taos. As there was nothing in Captain
Lee's journey home to require the services of so important a man as Mr.
Carson, the latter decided to remain and unite himself with the trappers.

The party was large, the beavers were scarce, and after the lapse of a
month Mr. Carson decided that the prospect of a rich remuneration in the
distribution of their furs, was not encouraging. He therefore arranged an
expedition on his own account. His popularity as a man and his reputation
as a trapper were such that every man in the party was ready to join him.
He selected three of the best men, and crossing the main ridge of the
Rocky mountains, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles, reached
the Laramie river, a stream which flowed into the north fork of the
Platte.

The warm airs of spring were now beginning to breathe through these
valleys. On the Laramie and its tributaries, Carson and his companions
continued trapping through the whole summer. They were successful beyond
their highest expectations. As they were to carry their furs for sa