The character of the section changed altogether.

It was exceedingly fertile and game was so abundant that they feasted to their heart's content.

When fully rested, they proceeded to the San Joaquin river down which they began trapping.
While thus employed, they were surprised to discover signs of another trapping party near them.

They wondered where they came from and it did not take them long to learn that their neighbors were a company of trappers belonging to the Hudson Bay Company--that enormous corporation, founded two centuries before, whose agents and employees tramp over British America, far to the northward of the frozen circle, and until a recent date hunted through Oregon.
The two parties were rivals in business, but they showed excellent sense by meeting on good terms and treating each other as friends.

They trapped near each other until they came to the Sacramento once more, when they parted company.