The Bonneville Salt Flats and Bonneville County in Idaho are named after the western adventurer, Captain Bonneville of the U.S. Army. While he kept the journal regarding his travels as a mountain man and trapper, Bonneville gave the manuscript to Washington Irving for putting the book into final form. Best known for his short stories, Irving makes each chapter of this journal read like a short story. This book has the typical low-key humor so characteristic of Irving. This work has a lot to commend it. The reader will be discovering new lands and meeting various people--some friendly and some not so friendly. Above all, the reader will be getting a rare glimpse of life--and death--experienced by the early American mountain man, seen through the eyes of a man who became a member of this very unusual fraternity for two and a half years.