THE BEAVER TRAPPERS.

CHAPTER I.

THE FUR MARKET, SAINT LOUIS.

THOSE who are acquainted with the active life of an English commercial town, where every one is hurrying to and fro, striving to do business and accumulate money, can easily form an idea of American cities in general. But from observation of what goes on in such a town, they would be at a loss to form a correct impression of Saint Louis at the time of the Annual Fur Sales. The continent itself, the position of the town, the people gathered together, and the goods they bring to sell, as well as the mode of conducting the trade-all are so peculiar and different from what we are accustomed to, that only those who have seen them with their own eyes can correctly describe the life and animation which everywhere prevail.

The town of St. Louis is on the Mississippi, in the south-western part of the United States of America. Like all American towns, it is