11.

Rival trapping parties--Manoeuvring--A desperate game--
Vanderburgh and the Blackfeet--Deserted camp fire--A dark
defile--An Indian ambush--A fierce melee--Fatal
consequences--Fitzpatrick and Bridger--Trappers precautions
--Meeting with the Blackfeet--More fighting--Anecdote of a
young--Mexican and an Indian girl.

WHILE Captain Bonneville and his men are sojourning among the Nez
Perces, on Salmon River, we will inquire after the fortunes of those
doughty rivals of the Rocky Mountains and American Fur Companies, who
started off for the trapping grounds to the north-northwest.

Fitzpatrick and Bridger, of the former company, as we have already
shown, having received their supplies, had taken the lead, and hoped
to have the first sweep of the hunting grounds. Vanderburgh and
Dripps, however, the two resident partners of the opposite company, by
extraordinary exertions were enabled soon to put themselves upon their
traces, and pressed forward with such speed as to overtake them just
as they had reached the heart of the beaver country. In fact, being
ignorant of the best trapping grounds, it was their object to follow on,
and profit by the superior knowledge of the other party.

Nothing could equal the chagrin of Fitzpatrick and Bridger at being
dogged by their inexperienced rivals, especially after their offer
to divide the country with them. They tried in every way to blind and