Excerpt from Trailmakers of the Northwest The story of the exploration of the American North west is one of the most picturesque and romantic in hu man annals. Adventurous men, pushing into the un known at the hazard of their lives, discovered wilderness oceans whose waters seemed to mingle With the sky, fol lowed the winding courses of mighty rivers for thou sands of miles, found their way through mountain laby rinths where craggy peaks lifted high their ice-clad sum mits, hunted strange and dangerous wild beasts, traded and fought With tribes of treacherous, red-skinned aborig ines Who might be friends to-day and deadly enemies to-morrow, and finally, after centuries of effort, stood upon the shores of the vast Pacific and gazed westward over its heaving waters toward the old Cathay. For many years I have been an eager reader of the literature of the subject, and repeatedly I have myself made expeditions to the dwindling regions that yet re main unexplored. The present book is the outcome of this reading and of these first-hand experiences. It does not purport to be exhaustive. It is rather an impres sionistic picture of a great epic movement, and, frankly, it is a book for boys - young and old. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.