The Voyageurs Or Boatmen Were The Rank And File In The
Service Of The Trader, And Even The Hardy "Men Of The North,"
Those Great Rufflers And Game Birds, Were Fain To Be Paddled From
Point To Point Of Their Migrations.
A totally different class has now sprung up:
- "The Mountaineers,"
the traders and trappers that scale the vast mountain chains, and
pursue their hazardous vocations amidst their wild recesses. They
move from place to place on horseback. The equestrian exercises,
therefore, in which they are engaged, the nature of the countries
they traverse, vast plains and mountains, pure and exhilarating
in atmospheric qualities, seem to make them physically and
mentally a more lively and mercurial race than the fur traders
and trappers of former days, the self-vaunting "men of the
north." A man who bestrides a horse must be essentially different
from a man who cowers in a canoe. We find them, accordingly,
hardy, lithe, vigorous, and active; extravagant in word, and
thought, and deed; heedless of hardship; daring of danger;
prodigal of the present, and thoughtless of the future.
A difference is to be perceived even between these mountain
hunters and those of the lower regions along the waters of the
Missouri. The latter, generally French creoles, live comfortably
in cabins and log-huts, well sheltered from the inclemencies of
the seasons. They are within the reach of frequent supplies from
the settlements; their life is comparatively free from danger,
and from most of the vicissitudes of the upper wilderness.
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