It is in this way that small knots of trappers and hunters are distributed about the wilderness by the fur companies, and like cranes and bitterns, haunt its solitary streams.

Robinson, the Kentuckian, the veteran of the "bloody ground," who, as has already been noted, had been scalped by the Indians in his younger days, was the leader of this little band.

When they were about to depart, Mr.Miller called the partners together and threw up his share in the company, declaring his intention of joining the party of trappers.
This resolution struck every one with astonishment, Mr.Miller being a man of education and of cultivated habits, and little fitted for the rude life of a hunter.

Besides, the precarious and slender profits arising from such a life were beneath the prospects of one who held a share in the general enterprise.

Mr.Hunt was especially concerned and mortified at his determination, as it was through his advice and influence he had entered into the concern.