Alas! alas! that we who write and read about those wondrous scenes should have to condemn our own species as the most degraded of all the works of the Creator there!  Yet so it is.  Man, exercising his reason and conscience in the path of love and duty which his Creator points out, is God’s noblest work; but man, left to the freedom of his own fallen will, sinks morally lower than the beasts that perish.  Well may every Christian wish and pray that the name and the gospel of the blessed Jesus may be sent speedily to the dark places of the earth; for you may read of, and talk about, but you cannot conceive the fiendish wickedness and cruelty which causes tearless eyes to glare, and maddened hearts to burst, in the lands of the heathen.

While we are on this subject, let us add (and our young readers will come to know it if they are spared to see many years) that civilization alone will never improve the heart.  Let history speak, and it will tell you that deeds of darkest hue have been perpetrated in so-called civilized though pagan lands.  Civilization is like the polish that beautifies inferior furniture, which water will wash off if it be but hot enough.  Christianity resembles dye, which permeates every fibre of the fabric, and which nothing can eradicate.

The success of the trappers in procuring beaver here was great.  In all sorts of creeks and rivers they were found.  One day they came to one of the curious rivers before mentioned, which burst suddenly out of a plain, flowed on for several miles, and then disappeared into the earth as suddenly as it had risen.  Even in this strange place beaver were seen, so the traps were set, and a hundred and fifty were caught at the first lift.

The manner in which the party proceeded was as follows:—­They marched in a mass in groups or in a long line, according to the nature of the ground over which they travelled.  The hunters of the party went forward a mile or two in advance, and scattered through the woods.  After them came the advance-guard, being the bravest and most stalwart of the men mounted on their best steeds, and with rifle in hand; immediately behind followed the women and children, also mounted, and the pack-horses with the goods and camp equipage.  Another band of trappers formed the rear-guard to this imposing cavalcade.  There was no strict regimental order kept, but the people soon came to adopt the arrangements that were most convenient for all parties, and at length fell naturally into their places in the line of march.

Joe Blunt usually was the foremost and always the most successful of the hunters.  He was therefore seldom seen on the march except at the hour of starting, and at night when he came back leading his horse, which always groaned under its heavy load of meat.  Henri, being a hearty, jovial soul and fond of society, usually kept with the main body.  As for Dick, he was everywhere at once, at least as much so as