A collection of 24 humorous mountain man tall tales, these stories are narrated in a loose kind of verse in the voice of a tough and experienced early-19th-century Rocky Mountain fur trapper. While a few of the tales are retellings of whoppers by famous historical mountain men, most are original outrageous lies of the author's own, related in the mountaineer tradition. All of the stories contain glimpses of the difficult, dangerous life of that rowdy breed of men who challenged the uncharted wilderness and triumphed because of their courage, fortitude, and unquenchable laughter in the face of hardship and peril.