We ought not to forget that, in addition to the study of the languages, he also devoted much attention to the study of geography.  They had no books, no maps.  It is doubtful indeed, whether either Kit or his teacher could read or write.  But Kin had been a renowned explorer.  He had traversed the prairies, climbed the mountains, followed the courses of the rivers, and paddled over the lakes.  With his stick he could draw upon the smoothly trodden floor of his hut, everything that was needful of a chart.  There were probably many idle students in Harvard and Yale, who during those winter months did not make as much intellectual progress as Kit Carson made.

In the spring of 1827, Kit again went forth from his winter’s retreat into the wilderness world, which has its active life and engrossing excitements, often even far greater than are to be found on the city’s crowded pavements.  Not finding in these remote regions any congenial employment, Kit decided to retrace his steps to Missouri.  Most persons would have thought that the journey of some thousand miles on foot, through a trackless wilderness where he was exposed every step of the way, to howling wolves and merciless savages, a pretty serious undertaking.  Kit appears to have regarded it but as an every-day occurrence.

He joined a party of returning traders.  Much of the region they traversed may be aptly described in the language which Irving applies to Spain.  “It is a stern melancholy country, with rugged mountains and long sweeping plains, indescribably lonesome, solitary, savage.”  After travelling nearly five hundred miles, about half the distance back to Missouri, they reached a ford of the Arkansas river.  Here they met another party of traders bound to Santa Fe.  Kit, who with great reluctance had decided to return home, eagerly joined them.  His services were deemed very valuable, and they offered him a rich reward.  His knowledge of the Spanish language became now a valuable investment to him, and as he had already twice traversed the route, he was at once invested with the dignity of guide as well as interpreter.

The following incident, related by a traveller who was passing over this same plain under the guidance of Kit Carson, shows that there are other dangers to be encountered besides the prowling savage and the wolf: 

“It was a bright moonlight night.  I had, as was my custom, spread my saddle leathers for a bed, and had drawn my blanket closely around me.  Weary with the day’s march, I had been sleeping soundly for several hours, when about midnight I awoke suddenly with an unaccountable feeling of dread.  It must have been a sort of instinct which prompted me, for in a moment I was upon my feet, and then, upon removing my blanket, I found a rattlesnake, swollen with rage and poison, coiled and ready to strike.