The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1882-10-04
MISCELLANY.
A TYPE OF MouNTAiNEERS.
The Geld Mining Tramps of the Rocky
Mountains.

There are many men in the Rocky Noun
tains whose lives are passed in wandering
through the dense forests and frosty valleys
Of these rugged highlands. During the
summer they tow with heavy rope an OBJ
stinate donkey, preferably white, sad-faced
donkey or wise pony, laden with provis-
ions and the tools used in prospecting for
placer mines. During the arctic winters
they glide over the surface of the deep snow
on long, narrow boards, curved in front as
sled runners, and concave ON the under side,
old-fashioned skates known as Norwegian
snow shoes, visiting their beaver traps; or
they tramp over the barren, wind-swept
foothills, searching for the bodies of such
greedy, credulous wolves or bears as may
have eaten of tho feast of strychnine-impreg-
mated meat prepared for them.
@These men have no families. They are
possessed of spirit of unrest The desire
for change, the love of solitude, rather than
the hope of gain, animates them. They
seldom search for leads indeed, they have
hearty contempt for hard rock mines and
miners. They like to live alone in rude
hut standing under spreading pine by the
bank of mountain trout brook They will
not work for other men unless hunger COM
pels them, or poverty has entailed dearth
of cartridges. They trap, they hunt, they
placer mine, they prospect. They UNDER
take long, ardrous tours, apparently aim
lessly wandering through the forests. They
are always going to the Snowy Range.
They build huts in localities widely separa-
ted On the shore of Trout Lake, lying be-
hind the mighty second range, is one hut.
At the base of the perpetual snow, where the
elk Craze during the summer will be anoth-
err On the banks of creek where beaver
are numerous, the creek being regarded as
private game preserve, will be another. And
in the valley where he winters, and which
he claims is g a good meat aud wolf ground"
will be another hut. In these men the
qualities of hunter, trapper, gold miner, and
A----.- -----L;.,aa nu---- 49,
mountains thoroughly and love them. Their
earnings depend on the price of fur and on
the yield of their placer mines. Their hap
piness depends only on their freedom.
Their annual earnings will probably average
about $i00 each. ] know an instance
where they reached $4,000; but this was a
winter of famous beaver catch, ON Mon
tana creek, where the jaws of trap had
never before snapped, and where the wolves
were hungry for strychnine. The unlucky,
or it may be the lazy, may not earn more
than enough to buy the cheapest clothing
and scanty supply of bacon and -four for
the winters use. This they supplement with
generous rations of elk, deer, antelope, and
beaver meat; indeed, it is on the flesh of
game animals these men generally depend
for food Successful or unsuccessful in
trapping and mining, they enter upon the
winter in about the same condition of finan-
cial bankruptcy. If successful, after selling
their furs and gold dust and buying sup
plies for the winters use, as they tersely ex-
press it, they eco in bald-headed for whis-
key" While engaged in the pleasures of
going in, they are ready to fight with any
one who encroaches on their freedom of per-
sonal action. When sober, they are an ear
nest, quiet people, brave of blood rather
than combative. There is no kinship be-
tween a sinewy, quiet-spoken mountaineer
and the buckskin-clad, long haired, whiskey-
bloated fraud who swaggers around frontier
towns, and whose existence is reverend
ing search for verdant tenderfeet, to whom
he talks as the hero of dime novel, hoping
to be rewarded by the gift of drink of
liquor for the recital of mythical adventures
in killing Indians and grizzly bears, and the
display of the lying record of his prowess
notched on pistol or rifle stock, the notches
having been cut while the fraud lay behind
cowshed hiding from a dunning dry goods
clerk who had rashly trusted him for the
flashy red handkerchief tied around his
whiskey -eroded gullet. The former are sell
dom seen by Eastern tourists. The latter
obtrudes himself ON them. During the
summer the former are in the mountains,
mining in lonely gulches, or hunting elk
Just below the snow line, or prospecting for
trapping ground. The latter rouse them.
selves with difficulty from drunken stupor to
swngger around the railroad stations when
the passenger trains arrive. They are pro-
specting for tenderfeet.