In this trade future millionaires laid their foundations.
The beaver were then the most profitable of all, and they were the most abundant.

The pelts were estimated by "packs," each of which consisted of about eighty skins, weighing one hundred pounds, and worth in the mountains from three hundred to five hundred dollars.

The profits were thus speedy and very great.

In the search for the richest rewards the trapper continually pushed farther and farther away from the "States," encroaching at length on the territory claimed by Spain, a claim to be soon (1821) adopted by the new-born Mexican Republic.

Trespassing on the tribal rights of Blackfoot, Sioux, Ute, or any other did not enter into any one's mind as something to be considered.