And the blunt-bowed keel-boat harnessed
To its brawny, sweating crew,
As they trailed the long cordelle-rope up the shore.
Came the block-house of the fur-trade,
Where the trappers brought their spoil
From bison-range and log-laced beaver fall;
French and half-breed, Sioux and Yankee,
Flinging out a season's toil
For a week of drunken revelry and brawl.
Up the swinging, bluff-bound reaches