faloes were the chief animals that
were afterward driven west by the advancing tide of civilization, until
the agents of the Missouri and Western Fur Companies were forced to do
most of their work in the far west and north-west, where they came in
collision with that vast monopoly known as the Hudson Bay Company,
which, until recent years, not only trapped and hunted throughout
Oregon, but along the Pacific coast as far south as California.

George Linden, Rufus Hardin and James Bowlby composed the party who, in
the autumn of the year of which I am writing, rode each a horse a
hundred miles to the south of the frontier settlement of Greville, and
pitched their tent at the foot of the Ozark range. Beside the animals
ridden, each hunter took a pack-horse to help bring back the peltries
that were to be gathered during the cold weather. As a matter of course,
they were provided with guns and plenty of munitions, and indeed with
every necessity for their limited wants. They had spent several winters
there and knew what was before them. They had hunted and trapped for
years in other parts of the great west, and more than once had made the
long journey to the post of St. Louis to dispose of their furs, a
necessity that, as I have explained, was removed by the annual visit of
the agents with their long train of pack-horses to gather up the
peltries.

And so, without giving any of the interesting particulars of the ride
southward from Greville, let us take a look at the little party gathered
at their primitive camp in the wild Ozark region.

The six horses had been relieved of their burdens on reaching the place,
and were turned loose to crop the grass that was plentiful in many
places. Although there was snow now and then through the winter, there
was hardly enough to cause any suffering on the part of the animals.
When the storms, however, were violent or prolonged, the hardy beasts
were provided with some of the stores of dried grass that was kept in
stock, as may be said. In case that gave out they could make shift with
the cottonwood and other trees, whose bark was not lacking in succulent
qualities.

Although a tolerable shelter could have been found in any one of the
numerous caves within reach, the hunters preferred to erect a rough
cabin, that was almost strong enough to withstand a cyclone. The keen
axes enabled them to trim off the interfering limbs, and they were
joined at the corners so well that very little, if