He did not always take the trouble to build a shelter,
unless in the winter. A couple of deerskins stretched over a willow
frame was considered sufficient to protect him from the storm. Sometimes
he contented himself with a mere "breakwind," the rocky wall of a
canyon, or large ravine. Near at hand he set up two poles, in the crotch
of which another was laid, where he kept, out of reach of the hungry
wolf and coyote, his meat, consisting of every variety afforded by the
region in which he had pitched his camp. Under cover of the skins of
the animals he had killed hung his old-fashioned powder-horn and
bullet-pouch, while his trusty rifle, carefully defended from the damp,
was always within reach of his hand. Round his blazing fire at night his
companions, if he had any, were other trappers on the same stream; and,
while engaged in cleaning their arms, making and mending moccasins, or
running bullets, they told long yarns, until the lateness of the hour
warned them to crawl under their blankets.

Not far from the camp, his animals, well hobbled, fed in sight; for
nothing did a hunter dread more than a visit from horse-stealing
Indians, and to be afoot was the acme of misery.

Some hunters who had married squaws carried about with them regular
buffalo-skin lodges, which their wives took care of, according to Indian
etiquette.

The old-time trappers more nearly approximated the primitive savage,
perhaps, than any other class of civilized men. Their lives being spent
in the remote wilderness of the mountains, frequently with no other
companion than Nature herself, their habits and character often assumed
a most singular cast of simplicity, mingled with ferocity, that appeared
to take its colouring from the scenes and objects which surrounded them.
Having no wants save those of nature, their sole concern was to provide
sufficient food to support life, and the necessary clothing to protect
them from the sometimes rigorous climate.

The costume of the average trapper was a hunting-shirt of dressed
buckskin, with long, fringed trousers of the same material, decorated
with porcupine quills. A flexible hat and moccasins covered his
extremities, and over his left shoulder and under his right arm hung his
powder-horn and bullet-pouch, in which he also carried flint, steel, and
other odds and ends. Round his waist he wore a belt, in which was stuck
a large knife in a sheath of buffalo-hide, made fast to the belt by a
chain or gu