Actually they did not make a definite exit; they just faded away. Some, like Colter, turned into prosaic farmers; others became guides, only to lag superfluously upon the stage; some turned to trade; some, to government appointments as Indian agents. A few lingered on as trappers, sighing for the life that was gone forever. Trappers of the Great West—they had given their all and there were no regrets. Their levity and valor, their hardships and pleasure, what a medley it made. One of the French Canadians has left this testimonial: I have now been forty-two years in this country. For twenty-four I was light canoe-man; I required but little sleep, but sometimes got less than I required. No portage was too long for me; all portages were alike. My end of the canoe never touched the ground till I saw the end of it. Fifty songs a day were nothing to me. I could carry, paddle, walk, and sing with any man I ever saw. During that period, I saved the lives of ten Bourgeois, and was always the favourite, because when others stopped to tarry at a bad step, and lost time, I pushed on—over rapids, over cascades, over chutes; all were the same to me. No water, no weather, ever stopped the paddle or the song. I have had twelve wives in the country; and was once possessed of fifty horses, and six running dogs, trimmed in the first style. I was then like a Bourgeois, rich and happy; no Bourgeois had better-dressed wives than I; no Indian chief finer horses; no white man better harnessed or swifter dogs. I beat all Indians at the race, and no white man ever passed me in the chase. I wanted for nothing; and I spent all my earnings in the enjoyment of pleasure. Five hundred pounds, twice told, have passed through my hands; although now I have not a spare shirt to my back, nor a penny to buy one. Yet, were I young again, I should glory in commencing the same career again.[86] The significance of the fur trade is graphically depicted by the National Park Service with charts, diagrams, illustrations, models, and dioramas in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, Scotts Bluff, Guernsey Lake, Fort Laramie, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National parks. Chapter V WERE INDIANS AFRAID OF YELLOWSTONE? Beginning with the origin of Yellowstone as a National Park the idea became current that Indians were afraid of the area. The opinion is still widely held that they considered it a cursed domain, unfit for habitation. While it is true that superstition and taboo loomed large in primitive experience, there is no reason to suppose that Indians gave Wonderland a wide berth.[87] Rather, there is an abundance of material evidence that controverts this view. Furthermore, the proposition is at once illogical and untrue historically.