"Yes," said Hugh, "it's sure an interesting story; though I have never seen the books, I have heard a good deal of it told. It used to be talked about a whole lot in early days."
"Well," said Mr. Sturgis, "a lot of those old Astorians, as Astor's employees at Astoria were called, wrote books giving their experiences, and it would be well worth your while to read them. I remember the names of some of them--Alexander Ross, Ross Cox, Franchere--and besides them some of the Hudson's Bay people, into whose hands the place passed later, wrote exceptionally interesting accounts of life at the fort, of their journeys up and down the river, and of their travels over the mountains.
"Sometime, when we get back, Jack, ask me about these books and I will make a list of them for you. Most of them are out of print now, and can only be had at the libraries; but they are books that will repay reading, and the same thing can be said of a great number of volumes dealing with the exploration of the western country. It is astonishing that we Americans know so little about matters which should be of so much interest to us. Do you realize how little is known about the work of these early explorers, traders, and trappers? Some few of us are familiar with it, but most of the people back East know nothing whatever about these men. Pretty nearly all of this work has been done within the past seventy-five years, some of it within fifty years, and none of it goes back a century."
"Here is Hugh," he went on; "he has knowledge of the western country back almost to the time of that early exploration, and he certainly has known many men who were of the early generation of the trappers. Isn't that so, Hugh?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "that's sure enough true, Mr. Sturgis. I knew well Uncle Jack Robinson, the Bakers, Bridger, Beckwourth, and a whole lot of men that came into the country in the thirties or before. I have met old Bill Williams and Perkins, and know old man Culbertson well. I guess likely he's alive now."
"Why, even you, Jack," said Mr. Sturgis, "know old man Monroe, and he, according to all accounts, came into the country in 1813."
"That's so, Uncle George," said Jack; "that goes back a long way, doesn't it?"