showed that the
hunters had already been on the range.
The gayety of the camp was at an end; all preparations for musk-rat
trapping were suspended, and all hands sallied forth to examine the
trail. Their worst fears were soon confirmed. Infallible signs showed
the unknown party in the advance to be white men; doubtless, some rival
band of trappers! Here was competition when least expected; and that
too by a party already in the advance, who were driving the game before
them. Captain Bonneville had now a taste of the sudden transitions
to which a trapper's life is subject. The buoyant confidence in an
uninterrupted hunt was at an end; every countenance lowered with gloom
and disappointment.
Captain Bonneville immediately dispatched two spies to overtake the
rival party, and endeavor to learn their plans; in the meantime, he
turned his back upon the swamp and its musk-rat houses and followed
on at "long camps", which in trapper's language is equivalent to long
stages. On the 6th of April he met his spies returning. They had kept on
the trail like hounds until they overtook the party at the south end of
Godin's defile. Here they found them comfortably encamped: twenty-two
prime trappers, all well appointed, with excellent horses in capital
condition led by Milton Sublette, and an able coadjutor named Jarvie,
and in full march for the Malade hunting ground. This was stunning news.
The Malade River was the only trapping ground within reach; but to have
to compete there with veteran trappers, perfectly at home among the
mountains, and admirably mounted, while they were so poorly provided
with horses and trappers, and had but one man in their party acquainted
with the country-it was out of the question.
The only hope that now remained was that the snow, which still lay deep
among the mountains of Godin's River and blocked up the usual pass
to the Malade country, might detain the other party until Captain
Bonneville's horses should get once more into good condition in their
present ample pasturage.
The rival parties now encamped together, not out of companionship, but
to keep an eye upon each other. Day after day passed by without any
possibility of getting to the Malade country. Sublette and Jarvie
endeavored to force their way across the mountain; but the snows lay
so deep as to oblige them to turn back. In the meantime the captain's
horses were daily gaining strength, and their hoofs improving, which
had been worn
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