ry of the American fur trade of the far
West has been written by Captain H. M. Chittenden in volumes which will
be included among the classics of early Western history. Although his
history is a publication designed for limited circulation, no student or
specialist in this field can fail to appreciate the value of his
faithful and comprehensive work.

In The Story of the Trapper there is presented for the general reader a
vivid picture of an adventurous figure, which is painted with a
singleness of purpose and a distinctness impossible of realization in
the large and detailed histories of the American fur trade and the
Hudson's Bay and North-West companies, or the various special relations
and journals and narratives. The author's wilderness lore and her
knowledge of the life, added to her acquaintance with its literature,
have borne fruit in a personification of the Western and Northern
trappers who live in her pages. It is the man whom we follow not merely
in the evolution of the Western fur traffic, but also in the course of
his strange life in the wilds, his adventures, and the contest of his
craft against the cunning of his quarry. It is a most picturesque figure
which is sketched in these pages with the etcher's art that selects
essentials while boldly disregarding details. This figure as it is
outlined here will be new and strange to the majority of readers, and
the relish of its piquant flavour will make its own appeal. A strange
chapter in history is outlined for those who would gain an insight into
the factors which had to do with the building of the West. Woodcraft,
exemplified in the calling of its most skilful devotees, is painted in
pictures which breathe the very atmosphere of that life of stream and
forest which has not lost its appeal even in these days of urban
centralization. The flash of the paddle, the crack of the rifle, the
stealthy tracking of wild beasts, the fearless contest of man against
brute and savage, may be followed throughout a narrative which is
constant in its fresh and personal interest.

The Hudson's Bay Company still flourishes, and there is still an
American fur trade; but the golden days are past, and the heroic age of
the American trapper in the West belongs to a bygone time. Even more
than the cowboy, his is a fading figure, dimly realized by his
successors. It is time to tell his story, to show what manner of man he
was, and to preserve for a different age the adventurous cha