Many of these men were in the mountains because of the fascination of the exciting life, and were as loyally devoted to it as any individual is to his vocation. Many who were there, as well as many of the recruits, were men whose past would not bear too close inspection. They frequently went to the mountains to escape an outraged law, and remained not because of their love for the wilderness, but through fear that justice would be meted out to them should they return to the States. This was always a dangerous and undesirable element.

Another class of recruits, and by far the most numerous, was composed of young men or boys of an adventurous disposition. The alluring stories of the mountains and the great fortunes to be made in the trade, as illustrated by the very few on whom dame fortune had smiled, were the inducements held out to the inexperienced candidates for the mountains. The failures were, however, not mentioned and the trials, hard-ships, dangers, and loss of life were scarcely taken into consideration. A great majority of these young men soon learned from that wonderful teacher—experience—that it was as difficult to accumulate fortunes in the mountains as elsewhere, and infinitely more dangerous. Such was the school of hardship and privation from which many good men graduated and later became settlers and men of prominence in the rapidly developing great West.

Many of these men, particularly those in the employ of the British companies and not only the trappers but the officers of the company as well, contracted marriages with Indian women and for this reason did not wish to return to civilization and their former homes. They therefore remained in the West and their families developed with the rapid growth of this new country, and in this manner some of the leading families have a trace of aboriginal blood in their veins, of which they are justly proud.

Such was the school which graduated the scout and guide of later days. It was they who conducted the scientific expeditions sent out by the government, the surveying as well as exploring parties; it was they who guided the first emigrants by the overland routes to Oregon and California; and they who ferreted out in their peregrinations in the mountains the passage-ways, for none of the above expeditions would have ventured into this terra incognita without one of these old trappers as guide. Even the army, while in pursuit of hostile Indians, had its corps of experienced scouts and guides, which was largely made up of these mountain-men. For this kind of service they were well fitted, as they were inured to hard-ships and dangers. The decline of the fur-trade practically left them stranded, and in looking about for employment they were glad to accept such positions; nevertheless, their services have never been properly appreciated.

TRANSPORT

First among the challenges facing the mountain man was the problem of getting himself—his expedition or enterprise—west to the mountains, where the valuable fur-bearing animals were most plentiful.

BATEAU

The bateau, from the French word for “boat,” was most often a flat-bottomed, keel-less affair, framed in oak or other hardwood, sided in sawed pine planks and caulked with a pinetar pitch or other tree resin. These ordinary boats—sometimes called jon-boats—were, to mix a metaphor, the workhorses of America’s inland waterways, and might be as much as fifty or sixty feet long. They were either double-bowed, if ease of maneuver was the imperative, or single bowed with a square stern, when the aim was to maximize the amount of cargo to be carried. Though highly stable afloat, their bulk made them difficult to portage, which tended to limit their use to larger watercourses. Very often, they were fitted with a simple box device that allowed for the steeping of a (usually) stumpy mast.

KEELBOAT

The keelboat of this era was a long, narrow, keel-built vessel, often with a cabin or other shelter, usually located amidships. Propelled either by an arrangement of sweeps or by poling depending on the plan of decking, they often sported a mast and boom apparatus well forward, and were steered by rudder or oar. Frequently, the keelboat was the largest and most substantial craft in the flotilla, and often served as headquarters for the commercial or military expedition.

WHALEBOAT

Originally a sea-going vessel much in use in the whale fisheries and the Atlantic coastal trade, the whaleboat was soon adapted for transport on the inland waterways of the Americas. Double-bowed.

PIROGUE

Essentially a large, open boat, often double-bowed and flat-bottomed, they could be rowed or sailed.

In the era of the mountain men, a pirogue tended to be of considerable size, and heavy enough to withstand the discharge of swivel guns mounted in their bows.

FLATBOAT

The fur companies felt as great an urgency to get supplies west to the trading posts as they did to remove furs east to market. The flatboat was a relatively inexpensive and common answer to this need to move goods in bulk.

The lumber for these rectangular, flat-bottomed scows ordinarily came from cottonwoods, hardwoods, and pines. They were purpose-built, usually constructed for a particular shipment; and were expendable, in that they were often wholly modified at their journey’s end, or scrapped altogether and sold off for the value of their planking.

DUGOUT CANOE

Also called a log canoe, the dugout is strong, serviceable, and durable. Its construction is simple and it may be made quite light. This canoe may be made of pine, butternut, black-ash basswood, or cotton-wood. The best are hewn from pine. A log suitable for this should be large, sound and free of knots.

First it should be cut on two opposite sides of the log to a size corresponding to the depth of the intended vessel. On one side the cutting should not be in a straight line, but should run out at the surface of the log in order to give enough of a rise at the bow and stern. This is sometimes performed before the log is even cut or the tree is felled. Once the log is on the ground it is laid with that side uppermost which is to form the gunwale.

Next the outlines of the sides are marked with a line and chalk or a burnt stick. The general rule for laying out a canoe is to measure it into three equal sections; the two end sections are for the bow and stern. For a large canoe, the bow should be shaped somewhat more sharply than the stern. Likewise, the width of the vessel at the point where the curves of the bow start—below the gunwale—should be a little greater than at any other point. This difference can be easily managed when finishing off the sides, after the general shape is attained. If the canoe is very large it may be a good idea to attend to this task in the first hewing. The object in giving the dugout canoe a greater width here is to promote an ease of motion in the water. The same principle that governs in the construction of a larger vessel—and is seen in the shape of the duck or goose—applies to the shaping of a larger canoe.