f the Rocky
Mountains, and are difficult to approach. They have a great fondness
for salt, and pay regular visits to the numerous caverns of these
mountains, which are encrusted with a saline substance.

Walter Cameron now changed his intention of proceeding to the
eastward, as he found the country not so full of beaver at that
particular spot as he had anticipated. He therefore turned towards
the west, penetrated into the interior of the mountains, and took a
considerable sweep through the lovely valleys on their western slopes.

The expedition which this enterprising fur-trader was conducting was
one of the first that ever penetrated these wild regions in search of
furs. The ground over which they travelled was quite new to them, and
having no guide they just moved about at haphazard, encamping on the
margin of every stream or river on which signs of the presence of
beaver were discovered, and setting their traps.

Beaver skins at this time were worth 25s. a-piece in the markets of
civilized lands, and in the Snake country, through which our friends
were travelling, thousands of them were to be had from the Indians for
trinkets and baubles that were scarce worth a farthing. A beaver skin
could be procured from the Indians for a brass finger-ring or a penny
looking-glass. Horses were also so numerous that one could be procured
for an axe or a knife.

Let not the reader, however, hastily conclude that the traders cheated
the Indians in this traffic, though the profits were so enormous. The
ring or the axe was indeed a trifle to the trader, but the beaver skin
and the horse were equally trifles to the savage, who could procure as
many of them as he chose with very little trouble, while the ring and
the axe were in his estimation of priceless value. Besides, be it
remembered, to carry that ring and that axe to the far-distant haunts
of the Red-man cost the trader weeks and months of constant toil,
trouble, anxiety, and, alas! too frequently cost him his life! The
state of trade is considerably modified in these regions at the
present day. It is not more _justly_ conducted, for, in respect of the
value of goods given for furs, it was justly conducted _then_, but
time and circumstances have tended more to equalize the relative
values of articles of trade.

The snow which had prematurely fallen had passed away, and the
trappers now found themselves wandering about in a country so
beautiful and a season so delightful, t