den he would seal all our guns
for us."

"Well," said Rob, "I see there's a lake over here called Fish Lake."

"Yes. The old traders' trail runs between Fish Lake and Brule Lake,
and a great piece of sand it is in there, too--we engineers will have
to put blankets on that country to keep it from blowing away when we
build the railroad through. But we'll miss all that, and to-morrow
we'll stop at Swift's place, on the other side of the river."

"Whose place?" asked John. "I didn't know anybody lived in here."

"It's an odd thing about this country," said Uncle Dick, "but people
do live all over it, and have done so for a hundred years or two,
although it, none the less, is the wilderness. Sometimes you will find
a settler in the wildest part of the mountains. Now, Swift is an old
Yankee that came up here from the States about thirty years ago. He
used to trade and trap, perhaps, and of late years he has made him
quite a farm. Besides that, he has built himself a mill and makes his
own flour. He's quite an ingenious old chap, and one of the features
of the country. We engineers found his fresh vegetables pretty good
last season. For my part, I hope he makes a fortune out of his land if
we locate a town near him. His place isn't so very far from Jasper
House. That was the first settlement in this country--the Hudson's
Bay's post, more than a hundred years ago."

"Is it still standing?" asked Rob.

"Oh no, and hasn't been for years. We can still see a few logs there,
and nothing more. It fell into disuse maybe fifty years ago, and was
abandoned altogether twenty-five years back, and since then burned
down. It's the only post, so far as I know, called after a man's
Christian name. The old posts were called 'houses,' but this one was
built by Jasper Hawse. Hardy old chap, old Jasper, I presume; because,
he made such good fur returns that the rival company, the old
Nor'westers, came in here and built a post, which they called Henry
House, on up the river some miles from Jasper House. But the
Nor'westers couldn't stand the competition, and before long they
abandoned their post, and it has been left so ever since. Lastly came
the engineers, following the traders, who followed the Indians, who
followed the wild-game trails; and behind us will come the railroads.
In two or three years, if you like, you youngsters can come through
here on the train a great deal more easily than you are doing it now.

"But now," concluded Un