Its edge, near the grove, was lined with a great variety of lodges, constructed of skins or bark, or of forest boughs.
Horses and mules in great numbers were feeding on the rich herbage, while groups of trappers, Canadians, Frenchmen, Americans and Indians, were scattered around, some cooking at their fires, some engaged in eager traffic, and some amusing themselves in athletic sports.

It was a peaceful scene, where, so far as the eye could discern, man's fraternity was combined with nature's loveliness to make this a happy world.

Such was the spectacle presented to the trappers as they descended into the valley.
On the other hand, the trappers themselves contributed a very important addition to the picturesqueness of the view.

Half a mile from the encampment, in the northeast, the land rose in a gentle, gradual swell, smooth, verdant and treeless, perhaps to the height of a hundred and fifty feet.

Down this declivity they were descending, with their horses and their pack mules, in a long line of single file.