elves to the utmost in taking beaver, which, without
skinning, they render in at the trader's lodge, where a stipulated price
for each is placed to their credit. These though generally included in
the generic name of free trappers, have the more specific title of skin
trappers.

The wandering whites who mingle for any length of time with the savages
have invariably a proneness to adopt savage habitudes; but none more so
than the free trappers. It is a matter of vanity and ambition with them
to discard everything that may bear the stamp of civilized life, and to
adopt the manners, habits, dress, gesture, and even walk of the Indian.
You cannot pay a free trapper a greater compliment, than to persuade
him you have mistaken him for an Indian brave; and, in truth, the
counterfeit is complete. His hair suffered to attain to a great length,
is carefully combed out, and either left to fall carelessly over
his shoulders, or plaited neatly and tied up in otter skins, or
parti-colored ribands. A hunting-shirt of ruffled calico of bright dyes,
or of ornamented leather, falls to his knee; below which, curiously
fashioned legging, ornamented with strings, fringes, and a profusion of
hawks' bells, reach to a costly pair of moccasons of the finest Indian
fabric, richly embroidered with beads. A blanket of scarlet, or some
other bright color, hangs from his shoulders, and is girt around his
waist with a red sash, in which he bestows his pistols, knife, and the
stem of his Indian pipe; preparations either for peace or war. His gun
is lavishly decorated with brass tacks and vermilion, and provided with
a fringed cover, occasionally of buckskin, ornamented here and there
with a feather. His horse, the noble minister to the pride, pleasure,
and profit of the mountaineer, is selected for his speed and spirit,
and prancing gait, and holds a place in his estimation second only to
himself. He shares largely of his bounty, and of his pride and pomp of
trapping. He is caparisoned in the most dashing and fantastic style; the
bridles and crupper are weightily embossed with beads and cockades; and
head, mane, and tail, are interwoven with abundance of eagles' plumes,
which flutter in the wind. To complete this grotesque equipment, the
proud animal is bestreaked and bespotted with vermilion, or with white
clay, whichever presents the most glaring contrast to his real color.

Such is the account given by Captain Bonneville of these rangers of
the wi