CHAPTER VI.

Bridger and Carson trapping on the Black Hills--The Main Camp--The Rendezvous--Winter Quarters on the Yellow Stone--Carson with forty men in a desperate fight with the Blackfeet Indians--A Council--Sentinel posted--One Thousand Warriors come to punish the Trappers--The War Dance--The Courage of the Savages deserts them--Winter Quarters--The Spring Hunt--Another Fight with the Blackfeet--Continued Annoyances--The Trappers abandon the Country--The Rocky Mountains and Alps compared--Other Trapping Expeditions--Beaver becoming scarce--Prices of Fur reduced--Kit Carson and the Trappers give up their Vocation--The Journey to Bent's Fort--Mitchell the Mountaineer--His Eccentricities, 127