prospects; but, as the old adage hath it, "what could not be cured was
quietly endured." Catching beaver is not always a matter of choice.
The beaver themselves have considerable to say on the subject.




CHAPTER IV.

Kit Carson and two Companions plan a Hunt for themselves--The
Great Success met with--Return to Taos--Sale of the Beaver
Fur--Kit Carson joins Captain Lee and goes on a Trading
Expedition--Winter Quarters--Kit Carson is sent in Pursuit
of a Thief--Overtakes and is obliged to shoot the
Runaway--Property recovered--The Return to Camp--The Sale
of Goods--Kit Carson joins Fitzpatrick and Party--Kit Carson
organizes a Hunting Party--His Encounter with two Grizzly
Bears--The Summer Rendezvous--Kit Carson joins fifty Trappers
and goes to the Country of the Blackfeet Indians--Annoyances
received from these Indians--Winter Quarters in 1832--Horses
Stolen--Kit Carson and eleven Men in Pursuit--A Parley--A
Fight--Kit Carson severely wounded--His great Sufferings
and Fortitude--His Convalescence--The Retreat--A New
Expedition--Braggadocio--Kit Carson Fights a Duel and Wounds
his man--Duels in the Rocky Mountains in Olden Times.


The fortunes of Gaunt's party in not finding game continued to grow
darker and darker as they traveled from stream to stream. The men
began to grow disheartened at this succession of failures. Kit Carson,