Though no longer bound by engagements to continue in the interior, they have become so accustomed to the freedom of the forest and the prairie, that they look back with repugnance upon the restraints of civilization.

Most of them intermarry with the natives, and, like the latter, have often a plurality of wives.
Wanderers of the wilderness, according to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the migrations of animals, and the plenty or scarcity of game, they lead a precarious and unsettled existence; exposed to sun and storm, and all kinds of hardships, until they resemble Indians in complexion as well as in tastes and habits.

From time to time, they bring the peltries they have collected to the trading houses of the company in whose employ they have been brought up.

Here they traffic them away for such articles of merchandise or ammunition as they may stand in need of.

At the time when Montreal was the great emporium of the fur trader, one of these freemen of the wilderness would suddenly return, after an absence of many years, among his old friends and comrades.