Mr. Astor has withdrawn entirely from the American Fur Company, as he
has, in fact, from active business of every kind. That company is
now headed by Mr. Ramsay Crooks; its principal establishment is at
Michilimackinac, and it receives its furs from the posts depending on
that station, and from those on the Mississippi, Missouri, and Yellow
Stone Rivers, and the great range of country extending thence to the
Rocky Mountains. This company has steamboats in its employ, with which
it ascends the rivers, and penetrates to a vast distance into the
bosom of those regions formerly so painfully explored in keel-boats
and barges, or by weary parties on horseback and on foot. The first
irruption of steamboats in the heart of these vast wildernesses is said
to have caused the utmost astonishment and affright among their savage
inhabitants.
In addition to the main companies already mentioned, minor associations
have been formed, which push their way in the most intrepid manner to
the remote parts of the far West, and beyond the mountain barriers. One
of the most noted of these is Ashley's company, from St. Louis, who
trap for themselves, and drive an extensive trade with the Indians. The
spirit, enterprise, and hardihood of Ashley are themes of the highest
eulogy in the far West, and his adventures and exploits furnish
abundance of frontier stories.
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