The Young Voyageurs | Page 4

of coolness and confidence, which tells you he
has met with dangers in the past, and would not fear to encounter them
again. It is an expression peculiar, I think, to the hunters of the "Far
West,"--those men who dwell amidst dangers in the wild regions of the
great prairies. Their solitary mode of life begets this expression. They
are often for months without the company of a creature with whom
they may converse--months without beholding a human face. They live
alone with Nature, surrounded by her majestic forms. These awe them
into habits of silence. Such was in point of fact the case with the youth
whom we have been describing. He had hunted much, though not as a
professional hunter. With him the chase had been followed merely as a
pastime; but its pursuit had brought him into situations of peril, and in
contact with Nature in her wild solitudes. Young as he was, he had
journeyed over the grand prairies, and through the pathless forests of
the West. He had slain the bear and the buffalo, the wild-cat and the
cougar. These experiences had made their impression upon his mind,
and stamped his countenance with that air of gravity we have noticed.
The second of the youths whom we shall describe is very different in
appearance. He is of blonde complexion, rather pale, with fair silken
hair that waves gently down his cheeks, and falls upon his shoulders.
He is far from robust. On the contrary, his form is thin and delicate. It
is not the delicacy of feebleness or ill-health, but only a body of slighter
build. The manner in which he handles his oar shows that he possesses
both health and strength, though neither in such a high degree as the
dark youth. His face expresses, perhaps, a larger amount of intellect,
and it is a countenance that would strike you as more open and
communicative. The eye is blue and mild, and the brow is marked by
the paleness of study and habits of continued thought. These
indications are no more than just, for the fair-haired youth is a student,
and one of no ordinary attainments. Although only seventeen years of
age, he is already well versed in the natural sciences; and many a

graduate of Oxford or Cambridge would but ill compare with him. The
former might excel in the knowledge--if we can dignify it by that
name--of the laws of scansion, or in the composition of Greek idyls; but
in all that constitutes real knowledge he would prove but an idle
theorist, a dreamy imbecile, alongside our practical young scholar of
the West.
The third and youngest of the party--taking them as they sit from stem
to bow--differs in many respects from both those described. He has
neither the gravity of the first, nor yet the intellectuality of the second.
His face is round, and full, and ruddy. It is bright and smiling in its
expression. His eye dances merrily in his head, and its glance falls
upon everything. His lips are hardly ever at rest. They are either
engaged in making words--for he talks almost incessantly--or else
contracting and expanding with smiles and joyous laughter. His cap is
jauntily set, and his fine brown curls, hanging against the rich roseate
skin of his cheeks, give to his countenance an expression of extreme
health and boyish beauty. His merry laugh and free air tell you he is
not the boy for books. He is not much of a hunter neither. In fact, he is
not particularly given to anything--one of those easy natures who take
the world as it comes, look upon the bright side of everything, without
getting sufficiently interested to excel in anything.
These three youths were dressed nearly alike. The eldest wore the
costume, as near as may be, of a backwoods hunter--a tunic-like
hunting-shirt, of dressed buckskin, leggings and mocassins of the same
material, and all--shirt, leggings, and mocassins--handsomely braided
and embroidered with stained quills of the porcupine. The cape of the
shirt was tastefully fringed, and so was the skirt as well as the seams of
the mocassins. On his head was a hairy cap of raccoon skin, and the
tail of the animal, with its dark transverse bars, hung down behind like
the drooping plume of a helmet. Around his shoulders were two
leathern belts that crossed each other upon his breast. One of these
slung a bullet-pouch covered with a violet-green skin that glittered
splendidly in the sun. It was from the head of the "wood-duck" (Anas
sponsa), the most beautiful bird of its tribe. By the other strap was
suspended a large crescent-shaped horn taken from the head of an

Opelousas bull, and carved with various ornamental devices. Other
smaller implements hung from the belts, attached