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"Meanwhile, divers of the company had joined the butcher, and, while some were greedily feeding upon liver and gall, others helped themselves to marrow-bones, "boudins," and intestinum medulae, (choice selections with mountaineers) and others, laden with rich spoils, hastened their return to commence the more agreeable task of cooking and eating. The remaining animal was butchered in a trice, and select portions of each were then placed upon a pack-horse and conveyed to the waggons. The assortment was, indeed, a splendid one. The "depouille" (fleece fat) was full two inches thick upon the animal's back, and the other dainties were enough to charm the eyes and excite the voracity of an epicure. The camp-fires soon presented a busy and amusing spectacle. Each one was ornamented with delicious roasts, en appolas, on sticks planted aslope around it, attentively watched by the longing voyageurs, who awaited the slow process of cooking. Some were seen with thin slices from the larder, barely heated through by the agency of a few coals, retreating from the admiring throng to enjoy solo their half-cooked morsels, -others, paring off bit by bit from the fresh-turned hissing roasts, while their opposite received the finishing operation of the fire, -and others, tossing their everted boudins into the flames, and in a few seconds withdrawing for the repast, each seizing his ample share, bemouthed the end in quick succession to sever the chosen escuent, which, while yielding to the eager teeth, coursed miniature rivulets of oily exuberance from the extremities of the active orifice, bedaubing both face and chin, and leaving its delighted eater in all the glories of grease. Every man had now become his own cook, and not to be backward, I closed in with the overture. Seizing a frying-pan replete with tempting levies from the "fleece," I twice subjected it to its duty, and as often its delicious contents found ample store-house; and even yet my longing appetite seemed loath to cry "hold, enough." The
agreeable odor exhaled from the drippings of the frying flesh, contained
in the pan, invited the taste, -a temptation claiming me for its
subject. Catching up the vessel, a testing sip made way for the
whole of its contents, at a single draught, -full six gills!
Strange as it may seem, I did not experience the least unpleasant
feeling as the result of my extraordinary potation."
The above passage is from Rocky Mountain Life by Rufus Sage.
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