These held themselves up as the chivalry of the fur trade.

They were men of iron; proof against cold weather, hard fare, and perils of all kinds.

Some would wear the Northwest button, and a formidable dirk, and assume something of a military air.
They generally wore feathers in their hats, and affected the "brave." "Je suis un homme du nord!"-"I am a man of the north,"-one of these swelling fellows would exclaim, sticking his arms akimbo and ruffling by the Southwesters, whom he regarded with great contempt, as men softened by mild climates and the luxurious fare of bread and bacon, and whom he stigmatized with the inglorious name of pork-eaters.

The superiority assumed by these vainglorious swaggerers was, in general, tacitly admitted.

Indeed, some of them had acquired great notoriety for deeds of hardihood and courage; for the fur trade had Its heroes, whose names resounded throughout the wilderness.
Such was Mackinaw at the time of which we are treating.