wharf at Pine Point, as the frail
craft shot out into the stream. The wild woods echoed back the cheer,
which mingled with the lusty answering shout of the trappers as they
waved their caps to the friends they left behind them. Then, dipping
their paddles with strong rapid strokes, they headed the canoe towards
the Rocky Mountains, and soon disappeared up one of those numerous
tributary streams that constitute the head waters of the Missouri river.

CHAPTER THREE.

THE BEAUTIES OF THE WILDERNESS--PORTAGES--PHILOSOPHY OF SETTLING DOWN--
AN ENORMOUS FOOTPRINT--SUPPER PROCURED, AND A BEAR-HUNT IN PROSPECT.

After paddling, and hauling, and lifting, and tearing, and wading, and
toiling, and struggling, for three weeks, our hero and his friends found
themselves deep in the heart of the unknown wilderness--unknown, at
least, to the civilised world, though not altogether unknown to the
trappers and the Red Indians of the Far West.

There is something inexpressibly romantic and captivating in the idea of
traversing those wild regions of this beautiful world of ours which have
never been visited by human beings, with the exception of a few
wandering savages who dwell therein.

So thought and felt young Marston one splendid afternoon, as he toiled
up to the summit of a grassy mound with a heavy pack on his shoulders.
Throwing down the pack, he seated himself upon it, wiped his heated brow
with the sleeve of his hunting-shirt, and gazed with delight upon the
noble landscape that lay spread out before him.

"Ha! _that's_ the sort o' thing--that's it!"--he exclaimed, nodding his
head, as if the rich and picturesque arrangement of wood and water had
been got up expressly for his benefit, and he were pleased to signify
his entire approval of it.

"That's just it," he continued after a short contemplative pause, "just
what I expected to find. Ain't I glad? eh?"

March certainly looked as if he was; but, being at that moment alone, no
one replied to his question or shared his enjoyment. After another
pause he resumed his audible meditations.

"Now, did ever any one see sich a place as this in all the wide 'arth?
That's what I want to know. Never! Just look at it now. There's miles
an' miles o' woods an' plains, an' lakes, an' rivers, wherever I choose
to look--all round me. And there are deer, too, lots of 'em, lookin'
quite tame, and no wonder, for I suppose the fut of man never rested
here before, except, maybe,