@F THE
UNXYEMITY
OF

Good Hunting

A WOUNDED BULL ELK

GOOD HUNTING

In Pursuit of Big Game
in the West

BY

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Illustrated

"Good hunting all
That keep the Jungle law."
RUDYARD KIPLING.

New York and London

, Harper Sr Brothers Publishers

1907

Copyright, 1896, 1897, 1907^7 HARPER & BROTHERS.

All rights reserved.
Published February, 1907.

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE WAPITI, OR ROUND-HORNED ELK . 13

II. A CATTLE-KILLING BEAR 27

III. A CHRISTMAS BUCK 41 '

IV. THE TIMBER-WOLF

Vfll

V. SHOOTING THE PRONG-BUCK .... 67^

VI. A TAME WHITE GOAT

VII. RANCHING 95 ]

Illustrations

A WOUNDED BULL ELK

SIX-POINT ELK-ANTLERS

FOLLOWING AN ELK-TRAIL IN WINTER .

GREAT WAS THE BULL'S ASTONISHMENT

THE GRIZZLY AND A VICTIM ....

"THE SHAGGY BEAST WAS FOUND LYING
DEAD WITHIN A DOZEN YARDS OF
HIS LAST VICTIM"

"'I DROPPED ON ONE KNEE AND FIRED*"

CANADIAN WOLVES AT AN INDIAN GRAVE

DOGS IN PURSUIT OF AN OLD WOLF. .

STALKING BIG GAME

" ' I LEAPED OFF, AND HELD WELL AHEAD
OF THE REARMOST AND LARGEST
BUCK*"

A WOUNDED ANTELOPE

FINALLY THE GOAT GOT USED TO THE

MOTION OF THE CANOE ....

COW-BOY AMUSEMENTS

TAILING A BULL

" THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF EXCITING

GALLOPING"

~****

The Wapiti,
or Round-horned Elk

THE WAPITI, OR ROUND-HORNED ELK

0 country of the temperate
zone can begin to compare
with South Asia, and, above
all, tropical and subtropical
Africa, in the number and
size of those great beasts of the chase's
which are known to hunters as big '
game; but after the Indian and Afri-
can hunting-grounds, the best are still
those of North America. Until a few
years before 1897 there were large re-
gions, even in the United States, where
the teeming myriads of wild game,
though of far fewer and less varied
'3

Good Hunting

species, almost equalled the multitudes
found in South Africa, and much sur-
passed those found anywhere else in
point of numbers, though inferior in
variety to those of India.

This, however, is now a thing of the
past. The bison, which was the most
characteristic animal of the American
fauna, has been practically exterminated.
There remained in 1897, however, a fair
abundance of all other kinds of game.
Perhaps, on the whole, the one affording
* most sport from the stand-point of the
hardy and skilful hunter is the big-horn,
^ though in size and in magnificence of
horn it is surpassed by some of the wild
sheep of Asia.

There is a spice of danger in the pursuit
of the grizzly-bear — the largest of all the
land bears — especially in Alaska, where
it is even larger than its Kamtchatkan
brother. The moose and the wapiti —
14

The Wapiti, or Round-horned Elk

ordinarily called the elk — are closely re-
lated to the Old-World representatives of
their kind ; but the moose is a little larger
and the wapiti very much larger than
any of their European or Asiatic kins-
folk. In particular, the elk, or wapiti,
is the stateliest of all deer, and the most
beautiful of American game beasts.

It is a pity we cannot always call the
wapiti by its right name, but the hunters
and settlers never know him as anything
but the elk, and I fear it would be
pedantry to try to establish his rightful
title. In former days the elk ranged to
tide-water on the Atlantic coast. A few
lingered in Pennsylvania until 1869, a
throughout the middle of the century,
they were abundant on the great plains.
In 1888 I shot one on the Little Missouri,
however. In many parts of the Rocky
Mountains and of the Coast Range the
species is still as abundant as ever, and

Good Hunting

this is especially true of northwestern
Wyoming, since that great animal-pre-
serve the Yellowstone Park swarms with
elk, and is their natural nursery and
breeding-ground.

The elk is the lordliest of his kind
throughout the world. The Scotch stag
is a pygmy but a fourth his size. The
stags of eastern Europe are larger than
those of Scotland, and in Asia larger still,
approaching in size a small wapiti. They
are all substantially alike except in size.

The wapiti is rather easier to kill than
the deer, because his size makes it easier
to see him ; and he is slower in his move-
ments, so that he is easier to hit. When
pressed he can gallop very hard for a few
hundred yards, but soon becomes tired.
The trot is his natural gait, and this he
can keep up for hours at a time, going at
a pace which makes it necessary for a
horse to gallop smartly to overtake him,
1 6

The Wapiti, or Round-horned Elk *

and clearing great logs in his stride, while
he dodges among the thick timber in a
really marvellous way, when one comes
to think of the difficulty he must have
in handling his great antlers.

Late in September the rut begins, and
then the elk gather in huge bands, while
the great bulls fight vicious battles for
leadership. Hunters call this the whist-
ling-time, because throughout its con-
tinuance the bulls are very noisy, con-
tinually challenging one another. Their
note is really not much like a whistle.
It consists of two or three bars, rising and
then falling, ending with a succession of
grunts; the tone of voice varies greatly
in different individuals; but when heard
at a little distance in the heart of the
great wooded wilderness the sound is very
musical, and to me — and, I suppose, to
most hunters — it is one of the most at-
tractive sounds in all nature.

17

r

Good Hunting

At this season the big bulls are quite
easy to approach by any man at all
skilled in still-hunting, for their incessant
challenging betrays their whereabouts,
and they are so angry and excited as to be
less watchful than usual. Some of my
most pleasurable memories of hunting
are connected with stalking some great
bull-elk in frosty weather, when the woods
rang with his challenges.

One evening in early October I was
camped high among the mountains of
western Montana. We were travelling
with a pack-train, and had pitched our
small tent among some firs by a brook,
while the horses grazed in the little park
or meadow close by. Elk were plentiful
round about. We had seen their trails
everywhere, and late in the afternoon
we had caught a glimpse of a band of
cows as they disappeared among the
pines.

'8

SIX-POINT ELK-ANTLERS

The Wapiti, or Round-horned Elk

Towards morning I was awakened by
hearing a bull challenge not very far
from camp. The sound of the challenge
kept coming nearer and nearer, and
finally I heard one of the horses snort
loudly in response ; evidently the elk saw
them, and, not making out exactly what
they were, was coming down to join them.
Sometimes horses will stampede when
thus approached; but our ponies were
veterans, and were very tired, and evi-
dently had no intention of leaving their
good pasture.

Sitting up in my blankets, I could tell
from the sound that they were still in the
park, and then the challenge of the bull
came pealing up not three hundred yards
from the tent. This was more than I
could stand, and I jumped up and put on
my shoes and jacket. The moon was
bright, but shooting by moonlight is very
deceptive, and I doubt whether I would
19

Good Hunting

have hit him even had I got down to the
park in time. However, he had moved
on before I got down, and I heard his chal-
lenge in the woods beyond.

Looking at my watch, I saw that it was
nearly dawn. I returned to the tent and
laid down as I was under the blankets, and
shivered and dozed for half an, hour, then
I came back to the meadow, where the
pack -ponies stood motionless. In the
brightening light the moon paled, and
I was very soon able to pick out the bull's
trail on the frost-covered ground, where
it was almost as plain as if he had been
walking in snow. I saw that he had
struck up a long valley, from which a
pass led into a wooded basin. At the
top of the pass I lost the trail entirely,
and as it was almost impossible to see for
any distance through the woods, I came
to the conclusion that the best thing to do
was to sit down and await events.

20

The Wapiti, or Round-horned Elk

I did not have long to wait. In a
couple of minutes the bugle of a bull came
echoing across the basin through the
frosty morning. Evidently my friend
was still travelling, hunting for some
possibly weaker rival. Almost imme-
diately I heard far off another answering
the challenge, and I stood up and medi-
tated what to do. There was very little
air, but such as there was blew to one
side of the spot from which the last chal-
lenge seemed to come, and I immediately
struck off at a trot through the woods to
get below the wind.

The answer to the challenge had evi-
dently greatly excited the bull whose
trail I had been following ; he called every
two or three minutes. The other answer
was somewhat more irregular, and as I
drew nearer I could tell from the volume
of sound that the second challenge was
from some big master-bull, who probably
21

Good Hunting

had his herd around him, and was roaring
defiance at his would-be despoiler, for
the single bull was doubtless on the look-
out for some weaker one whom he could
supplant as master of a herd.

It was likely that the second bull, being
a herd -master, would have the larger
antlers, and I therefore preferred to get
a shot at him. However, I was doomed
to disappointment. As I groped towards
the herd, and wras within a couple of hun-
dred yards, as I knew by the volume of
sound, I almost stumbled upon a small
spike-bull, who was evidently loitering
about the outskirts of the herd, not dar-
ing to go too near the bad-tempered old
chief. This little bull dashed away, giving
: the alarm, and a clash in the bushes soon
told that the herd was following him.

But luck favored me. The master-
bull, being absorbed in thoughts of his
rival, evidently suspected that the cows

!

GREAT WAS THE BULL'S ASTONISHMENT

The Wapiti, or Round-horned Elk

had some thought of fleeing from him,
and, as they ran, tried to hold them to-
gether. I ran too, going at full speed,
with the hope of cutting him off; in this
I failed, but I came almost face to face
with the very bull which I had been
following from camp, and which had
evidently followed the herd at full speed
as soon as they ran.

Great was his astonishment when he
saw me. He pulled up so suddenly to
wheel round that he almost fell on his
side ; then off he went in a plunging gallop
of terror; but he was near by, and step-
ping to one side I covered an opening be-
tween, two trees, firing the minute he
appeared. A convulsive leap showed that
the bullet had struck, and after him I>
went at full speed. In a short time I saw ||
him again, walking along with drooping
head, and again I fired into his flank; he
seemed to pay no attention to the shot, .,
23

Good Hunting

but walked forward a few steps, then
halted, faltered, and fell on his side. In,
another second I had placed my rifle
against a tree, and was admiring his
shapely form and massive antlers.

A Cattle-killing Bear

II

A CATTLE-KILLING BEAR

HERE were, in 1897, a few
grizzlies left here and there
along the Little Missouri,
usually in large bottoms
covered with an almost
impenetrable jungle of timber and thorny
brush. In the old days they used to be
very plentiful in this region, and vent-
ured boldly out on the prairie. The
Little Missouri region was a famous hunt-
ing-ground for both the white trappers
and the Indian hunters in those old days
when the far West was still a wilderness,
and the men who trapped beaver would
27

X

Good Hunting

wander for years over the plains and
mountains and see no white faces save
those of their companions.

Indeed, at that time the Little Missouri
was very dangerous country, as it was the
debatable-ground between many power-
ful Indian tribes, and was only visited
by formidable war-parties and hunting-
parties. In consequence of nobody dar-
ing to live there, game swarmed — buffalo,
elk, deer, antelope, mountain-sheep, and
bear. The bears were then very bold,
and the hunters had little difficulty in
getting up to them, for they were quite
as apt to attack as to run away.

But when, in 1880, the Northern Pacific
Railroad reached the neighborhood of the
Little Missouri, all this changed forever.
The game that for untold ages had trod-
den out their paths over the prairies and
along the river-bottoms vanished, as the
Indians that had hunted it also vanished.
28

A Cattle-killing Bear

The bold white hunters also passed away
with the bears they had chased and the
red foes against whom they had warred.
In their places the ranchman came in with
great herds of cattle and horses and
flocks of sheep, and built their log cabins
and tilled their scanty garden-patches,
and cut down the wild hay for winter
fodder. Now bears are as shy as they
are scarce. No grizzly in such a settled
region would dream of attacking a man
unprovoked, and they pass their days in
the deepest thickets, so that it is almost
impossible to get at them. I never
killed a bear in the neighborhood of my
former ranch, though I have shot quite a
number some hundreds of miles to the
west in the Rocky Mountains.

Usually the bears live almost ex-
clusively on roots, berries, insects, and
the like. In fact, there is always some-
thing grotesque and incongruous in com-
29

Good Hunting

paring the bear's vast size, and his
formidable claws and teeth, with the
uses to which those claws and teeth are
normally put. At the end of the season
the claws, which are very long in spring,
sometimes become so much blunted as
to be tender, because the bear has worked
on hard ground digging roots and the
like.

Bears often graze on the fresh tender
spring grass. Berries form their especial
delight, and they eat them so greedily
when, in season as to become inordinately
fat. Indeed, a bear in a berry -patch
frequently grows so absorbed in his work
as to lose his wariness, and as he makes
a good deal of noise himself in breaking
branches and gobbling down the fruit,
he is exposed to much danger from the
hunter.

Besides roots and berries, the bear will
feed on any small living thing he en-

A Cattle-killing Bear

counters. If in plundering a squirrel's
cache he comes upon some young squirrels,
down they go in company with the hoard-
ed uuts. He is continually knocking to
pieces and overturning old dead logs for
the sake of devouring the insects living
beneath them. If, when such a log is
overturned, mice, shrews, or chipmunks
are found underneath, the bear promptly
scoops them into his mouth while they
are still dazed by the sudden inrush of
light. All this seems rather ludicrous
as the life work of an animal of such huge
proportions and such vast strength.

Sometimes, however, a bear will take
to killing fresh meat for itself. Indeed,
I think it is only its clumsiness that
prevents it from becoming an habitual
flesh-eater. Deer are so agile that bears
can rarely get them; yet on occasions
not only deer, but moose, buffalo, and
elk fall victims to them. Wild game,

Good Hunting

however, are so shy, so agile, and so
alert that it is only rarely they afford
meals to old Ephraim — as the mountain
hunters call the grizzly.

Domestic animals are slower, more
timid, more clumsy, and with far duller
senses. It is on these that the bear by
preference preys when he needs fresh
meat. I have never, myself, known one
to kill horses; but I have been informed
that the feat is sometimes performed,
usually in spring ; and the ranchman who
told me insisted that when a bear made
his rush he went with such astonishing
speed that the horse was usually over-
taken before it got well under way.

The favorite food of a bear, however,
if he really wants fresh meat, is a hog or
sheep — by preference the former. If a
bear once gets into the habit of visiting
a sheepfold or pigpen, it requires no
slight skill and watchfulness to keep

A Cattle-killing Bear

him out. As for swine, they dread bears
more than anything else. A drove of
half -wild swine will make head against a
wolf or panther; but the bear scatters
them in a panic. This feat is entire-
ly justifiable, for a bear has a peculiar
knack in knocking down a hog, and then
literally eating him alive, in spite of his
fearful squealing.

Every now and then bears take to kill-
ing cattle regularly. Sometimes the crim-
inal is a female with cubs ; sometimes an
old male in spring, when he is lean, and has
the flesh hunger upon him. But on one
occasion a very large and cunning bear,
some twenty-five miles below my ranch,
took to cattle-killing early in the sum-11*
mer, and continued it through the fall/3;
He made his home in a very densely |^j
wooded bottom; but he wandered far
and wide, and I have myself frequently^'
seen his great, half - human footprints
3 33

Good Hunting

leading along some narrow divide, or
across some great plateau, where there
was no cover whatever, and where he
must have gone at night. During the
daytime, when on one of these expedi-
tions, he would lie up in some timber
coulee, and return to the river-bottoms
after dark, so that no one ever saw
him; but his tracks were seen very fre-
quently.

He began operations on the bottom
.where he had his den. He at first took
to lying in wait for the cattle as they
came down to drink, when he would seize
some animal, usually a fat young steer or
> heifer, knocking it over by sheer force.
In his furious rush he sometimes broke
the back with a terrific blow from his
fore-paw; at other times he threw the
animal over and bit it to death. The
rest of the herd never made any effort to
retaliate, but fled in terror. Very soon
34

A Cattle-killing Bear

the cattle wrould not go down on this
bottom at all; then he began to wander
over the adjoining bottoms, and finally
to make excursions far off in the broken
country. Evidently he would some-
times at night steal along a coulee until
he found cattle lying down on the hill-
side, and then approach cautiously and
seize his prey.

Usually the animals he killed were cows
or steers; and noticing this, a certain
ranchman in the neighborhood used to
boast that a favorite bull on his ranch, of
which he was particularly proud, would (
surely account for the bear if the latter :*
dared to attack him. The boast poved 3:
vain. One day a cow-boy riding down
a lonely coulee came upon the scene ofj
what had evidently been a very hard con
flict. There were deep marks of hoof
and claws in the soft soil, bushes wer<
smashed down where the struggling

35

v*. «»** **

Good Hunting

combatants had pressed against and over
them, and a little farther on lay the re-
mains of the bull.

He must have been seized by surprise ;
probably the great bear rushed at him
from behind, or at one side, and fastened
upon him so that he had no fair chance to
use his horns. Nevertheless, he made a
gallant struggle for his life, staggering to
and fro trying to shake off his murderous
antagonist, and endeavoring in vain to
strike back over his shoulder ; but all was
useless. Even his strength could not
avail against the might of his foe, and
the cruel claws and teeth tore out his
life. At last the gallant bull fell and
breathed his last, and the bear feasted
on the carcass.

The angry ranchman swore vengeance,
and set a trap for the bear, hoping it would
return. The sly old beast, however,
doubtless was aware that the body had

> r

H *!

o

H D

A Cattle-killing Bear

been visited, for he never came back, but
returned to the river-bottom, and again
from time to time was heard of as slay-
ing some animal. However, at last his
fate overtook him. Early one morning
a cow was discovered just killed and not
yet eaten, the bear having probably
been scared off. Immediately the ranch-
man put poison in the bait which the bear
had thus himself left, and twenty-four
hours later the shaggy beast was found
lying dead within a dozen yards of his
last victim.

A Christmas Buck

Ill

A CHRISTMAS BUCK

HROUGHOUT most of the
ranch country there are
two kinds of deer, the
black-tail and the white-
tail. The white-tail is the
same as the deer of the East ; it is a
beautiful creature, a marvel of lightness
and grace in all its movements, and
loves to dwell in thick timber, so that in '
the plains country it is almost confined^
to the heavily wooded river bottoms.
The black-tail is somewhat larger, with!
a different and very peculiar gait, con-,
sisting of a succession of stiff -legged
41

Good Hunting

bounds, all four feet striking the earth
at the same time. Its habits are like-
wise very different, as it is a bolder ani-
mal and much fonder of the open coun-
try. Among the Rockies it is found in
the deep forests, but it prefers scantily
wooded regions, and in the plains country
it dwells by choice in the rough hills,
spending the day in the patches of ash or
cedar among the ravines. In 1882 the
black-tail was very much more abun-
dant than the white-tail almost every-
where in the West, but owing to the nat-
ure of its haunts it is more easily killed
out, and in 1897, though both species
had decreased in numbers, the white-tail
was on the whole the more common.

My ranch-house was situated on a
heavily wooded bottom, one of the places
where the white-tail were found. On
one occasion I killed one from the ranch
veranda, and two or three times I shot

42

A Christmas Buck

them within half a mile of the house.
Nevertheless, they are so cunning and
stealthy in their ways, and the cover is
so dense, that usually, although one may
know of their existence right in one's
neighborhood, there is more chance of
getting game by going off eight or ten
miles into the broken country of the
black-tail.

One Christmas I was to be at the
ranch, and I made up my mind that I
would try to get a good buck for our
Christmas dinner; for I had not had
much time to hunt that fall, and Christ-
mas was almost upon us before we start-
ed to lay in our stock of winter meat. So
I arranged with one of the cow-boys to
make an all -day's hunt through some
rugged hills on the other side of the river,
where we knew there were black-tail.

We were up soon after three o'clock,
when it was yet as dark as at midnight.

43

«V"

Good Hunting

We had a long day's work before us,
and so we ate a substantial breakfast,
then put on our fur caps, coats, and
mittens, and walked out into the cold
night. The air was still, but it was biting
weather, and we pulled our caps down
over our ears as we walked towards the
rough, low stable where the two hunting-
ponies had been put overnight. In a few
minutes we were jogging along on our
journey.

There was a powder of snow over the
ground, and this and the brilliant star-
light enabled us to see our way without
difficulty. The river was frozen, hard,
and the hoofs of the horses rang on the ice
as they crossed. For a while we followed
the wagon road, and then struck off into
a cattle trail which led up into a long
coulee. After a while this faded out,
and we began to work our way along the
divide, not without caution, for in broken
44

A Christmas Buck

countries it is hard to take a horse during
darkness. Indeed, we found we had left
a little too early, for there was hardly a
glimmer of dawn when we reached our
proposed hunting-grounds. We left the
horses in a sheltered nook where there
was abundance of grass, and strode off on
foot, numb after the ride.

The dawn brightened rapidly, and there
was almost light enough for shooting when
we reached a spur overlooking a large
basin around whose edges there were sev-
eral wooded coulees. Here we sat down -
to wait and watch. We did not have to
wait long, for just as the sun was coming
up on our right hand we caught a glimpse^
of something moving at the mouth of one, 4® j
of the little ravines some hundreds of d*$| i

•zz'lftn.

yards distant. Another glance showed
us that it was a deer feeding, while an-
other behind it was walking leisurely in*
our direction.

45

A Christmas Buck

companion, dashed out of the coulee in
front, across the basin. It was broad-
side to me, and not more than one hun-
dred yards distant; but a running deer
is difficult to hit, and though I took two
shots, both missed, and it disappeared
behind another spur.

This looked pretty bad, and I felt
rather blue as I climbed up to look at the
trail of the spike. I was cheered to find
blood, and as there was a good deal of
snow here and there it was easy to follow
it ; nor was it long before we saw the buck
moving forward slowly, evidently very
sick. We did not disturb him, but
watched him until he turned down into
a short ravine a quarter of a mile off;
he did not come out, and we sat down and
waited nearly an hour to give him time to
get stiff. When we reached the valley,
one went down each side so as to be sure
to get him when he jumped up. Our

Good Hunting

/ .1

caution was needless, however, for we
failed to start him; and on hunting
through some of the patches of brush
we found him stretched out already
dead.

This was satisfactory; but still it was
not the big buck, and we started out again
after dressing and hanging up the deer.
For many hours we saw nothing, and we
had swung around within a couple of
miles of the horses before we sat down be-
hind a screen of stunted cedars for a last
look. After attentively scanning every
patch of brush in sight, we were about to
go on when the attention of both of us
was caught at the same moment by seeing
a big buck deliberately get up, turn round,
and then lie down again in a grove of
small, leafless trees lying opposite to us on
a hill-side with a southern exposure. He
had evidently very nearly finished his
day's rest, but was not quite ready to go
48

A Christmas Buck

out to feed; and his restlessness cost
him his life.

As we now knew just where he was, the
work was easy. We marked a place on
the hill-top a little above and to one side
of him ; and while the cow-boy remained
to watch him, I drew back and walked
leisurely round to where I could get a
shot. When nearly up to the crest I
crawled into view of the patch of brush,
rested my elbows on the ground, and
gently tapped two stones together. The
buck rose nimbly to his feet, and at
seventy yards afforded me a standing
shot, which I could not fail to turn to
good account.

A winter day is short, and twilight had
come before we had packed both bucks
on the horses ; but with our game behind
our saddles we did not feel either fatigue,
or hunger or cold, while the horses trotted
steadily homeward. The moon was a
49

Good Hunting

few days old, and it gave us light until we
reached the top of the bluffs by the river
and saw across the frozen stream the
gleam from the fire-lit windows of the
ranch-house.

The Timber-wolf

IV

THE TIMBER-WOLF

HERE are two kinds of
wolves found in the United
States. One is the little
coyote or prairie-wolf, or
barking-wolf, which never
was found in the Eastern States, being an
animal of the open country ; the other is
the big wolf, sometimes called the buffalo-
wolf, and sometimes the timber-wolf or*
gray wolf, which was formerly found /f
everywhere from the Atlantic to
Pacific. In some districts it runs to color
varieties of different kinds — red, black J
or white.

53

Good Hunting

The coyote is not at all a formidable
beast, and holds its own quite persistently
until civilization is well advanced in a
country. Coyotes are not dangerous to
either man or the larger domestic animals.
Lambs, young pigs, hens, and cats often
become their prey, and if very hungry
several of them will combine to attack a
young calf. In consequence, farmers and
ranchers kill them whenever the chance
offers ; but they do not do damage which
is even appreciable when compared with
the ravages of their grim big brother, the
gray wolf, which in many sections of the
West is a veritable scourge of the stock-
men.

The big wolves shrink back before the
growth of the thickly settled districts,
and in the Eastern States they often tend
to disappear even from districts that are
uninhabited, save by a few wilderness
hunters. They have thus disappeared
54

Good Hunting

especially the big game, being entirely
unused to contend with the new foe, suc-
cumbs easily, and is almost completely
killed out. If any individuals survive
at all, however, the succeeding genera-
tions are far more difficult to exterminate
than, were their ancestors, and they cling
much more tenaciously to their old homes.
The game to be found in old and long-
settled countries is much more wary and
able to take care of itself than the game
of an untrodden wilderness. It is a very
difficult matter to kill a Swiss chamois;
but it is a very easy matter to kill a white
goat after a hunter has once penetrated
among the almost unknown peaks of the
mountains of British Columbia. When,
the ranchmen first drove their cattle to
the Little Missouri they found the deer
tame and easy to kill, but the deer of
Maine and the Adirondacks test to the full
the highest skill of the hunter.
56

The Timber-wolf

In consequence, after a time, game may
even increase in certain districts where
settlements are thin. This has been true
of the wolves throughout the northern
cattle country in Montana, Wyoming,
and the western ends of the Dakotas.
In the old days wolves were very plenti-
ful throughout this region, closely follow-
ing the huge herds of buffaloes. The
white men who followed these herds as
professional buffalo-hunters were often
accompanied by other men, known as
11 wolfers/' who poisoned these wolves for
the sake of their furs. With the dis-
appearance of the buffalo the wolves
seemed so to diminish in numbers that
they also seemed to disappear. During
the last ten years their numbers have
steadily increased, and now they seem to
be as numerous as they ever were in the
region in question, and they are infinitely *
more wary and more difficult to kill.
57

Good Hunting

Along the Little Missouri their ravages
were so serious from 1893 to 1897 as to
cause heavy damage to the stockmen.
Not only colts and calves, but young trail
stock, and in midwinter even full-grown
horses and steers, are continually slain;
and in some seasons their losses have been
so serious as to more than eat up all the
profits of the ranchman. The county
authorities put a bounty on wolf scalps of
three dollars each, and in my own neigh-
borhood the ranchmen of their own ac-
cord put on a further bounty of five
dollars. This made eight dollars for
every wolf, and as the skin is also worth
something, the business of killing wolves
was quite profitable.

Wolves are very shy, and show ex-
traordinary cunning both in hiding them-
selves and in slinking out of the way
the hunter. They are rarely killed
with the rifle. I have never shot but one
5*

The Timber-wolf

myself. They are occasionally trapped,
but after a very few have been procured
in this way the survivors become so wary
that it is almost impossible even for a
master of the art to do much with them,
while an ordinary man can never get one
into a trap except by accident.

More can be done with poison, but even
in this case the animal speedily learns cau-
tion by experience. When poison is first
used in a district wolves are very easily
killed, and perhaps almost all of them will
be slain, but nowadays it is difficult to
catch any but young ones in this way.
Occasionally an old one will succumb, but
there are always some who cannot be
persuaded to touch a bait. The old she-
wolves teach their cubs, as soon as they
are able to walk, to avoid man's trace in
every way, and to look out for traps and
poison.

In consequence, though most cow-
59

Good Hunting

punchers carry poison with them, and are
continually laying out baits, and though
some men devote most of their time to
poisoning for the sake of the bounty and
the fur, the results are not very remu-
nerative.

The most successful wolf -hunter on the
Little Missouri in 1896 was a man who
did not rely on poison at all, but on dogs.
He was a hunter named Massingale, and
he always had a pack of at least twrenty
hounds. The number varied, for a wolf
at bay is a terrible fighter, with jaws like
those of a steel trap and teeth that cut
like knives, so that the dogs were con-
tinually disabled and sometimes killed,
and the hunter had always to be on the
watch to add animals to his pack.

It was not a pack that would appeal, as
far as looks go, to an old huntsman, but
it was thoroughly fitted for its own work.
Most of the dogs were greyhounds, either
60

0

o

O

o
r
c

c
r

The Timber-wolf

rough or smooth haired, but many of
them were big mongrels, and part some
other breed, such as bull-dog, mastiff,
Newfoundland, blood-hound, or collie.

The only two necessary requisites were
that the dogs should run fast and fight
gamely ; and in consequence they formed
as wicked, hard-biting a crew as ever ran
down and throttled a wolf. They were
usually taken out ten at a time, and by
their aid Massingale killed two hundred
wolves in the course of the year.

Of course there was no pretence of
giving the game fair play. The wolves
were killed as vermin, not for sport. The
greatest havoc was in the spring-time,
when the she -wolves were followed to
their dens, which were sometimes holes >
in the earth and sometimes natural caves.
There were from three to nine whelps in
each litter. Some of the hounds were,
very fast, and they could usually over-
61

Good Hunting

take a young or weak wolf; but an old
wolf-dog, with a good start, unless run
into at once, would surely get away if he
were in running trim. Frequently, how-
ever, he was caught when he was not in
running trim, for the hunter was apt to
find him when he had killed a calf or
taken part in dragging down a horse or
steer. Under these circumstances he
could not run long before the pack.

If possible, as with all such packs, the
hunter himself would get up in time to
end the worry by a stab of his hunting-
knife; but unless he was quick he would
have nothing to do, for the pack was
thoroughly competent to do its own kill-
ing. Grim fighter though a great wolf-
dog is, he stands no show before the
onslaught of ten such dogs, agile and
powerful, who rush on their antagonist
in a body. They possessed great power

their jaws, and unless Massingale was
62

The Timber-wolf

up within two or three minutes after the
wolf was taken, the dogs literally tore
him to pieces, though one or more of
their number might be killed or crippled
in the fight.

Other hunters were striving to get to-
gether packs thoroughly organized, and
the wolves may be thinned out; they
were certainly altogether too plentiful.
During the fall of 1896 I saw a number
myself, although I was not looking for
them. I frequently came upon the re-
mains of sheep and young stock which
they had killed, and once, on the top of a
small plateau, I found the body of a large
steer, while the torn and trodden ground
showed that he had fought hard for his
life before succumbing. There were ap-
parently two wolves engaged in the work,
and the cunning beasts had evidently
acted in concert. While one attracted
the steer's attention, the other, according

Good Hunting

to the invariable wolf habit, attacked
him from behind, hamstringing him and
tearing out his flanks. His body was
still warm when I came up, but his mur-
derers had slunk off, either seeing or
smelling me. Their handiwork was un-
mistakable, however, for, unlike bears
and cougars, wolves invariably attack
| their victim at the hind-quarters, and be-
gin their feast on the hams or flanks if
the animal is of any size.

Shooting the Prong-buck

V

SHOOTING THE PRONG-BUCK

OR a few years before 1897,
when I visited my cattle
range I spent most of my
time out on the great
plains, where almost the
only game that can be found is the
prong-horned antelope ; and as on such
trips the party depends for fresh meat
upon the rifle, I have on each occasion
done a certain amount of antelope-
shooting.

In the old days, when antelope were far
more plentiful than they are now, they
could often be procured by luring them
67

Good Hunting

with a red flag — for they are very in-
quisitive beasts — but now they have
grown wary, and must usually be either
stalked, which is very difficult, owing to
their extreme keenness of vision and the
absence of cover on the prairies, or else
must be ridden into.

With first-class greyhounds and good
horses they can often be run down in fair
chase; but ordinarily the rider can hope
for nothing more than to get within fair
shooting-range, and this only by taking
advantage of their peculiarity of running
straight ahead in the direction in which
they are pointed when once they have
settled to their pace. Usually antelope,
as soon as they see a hunter, run straight
away from him ; but sometimes they make
their flight at an angle, and as they do
not like to change their course when once
started, it is occasionally possible to cut
them off from the point towards which
68

STALKING BIG GAME

Shooting the Prong-buck

they are headed, and get a reasonably
close shot.

In the fall of 1896 I spent a fortnight
on the range with the ranch wagon. I
was using for the first time one of the
then new small-caliber, smokeless-powder
rifles, a 30-30-160 Winchester. I had a
half -jacketed bullet, the butt being cased
in hard metal, while the nose was of pure
lead.

While travelling to and fro across the
range we usually broke camp each day,
not putting up the tent at all during the
trip ; but at one spot we spent three nights.
It was in a creek bottom, bounded on
either side by rows of grassy hills, beyond
which stretched the rolling prairie. The
creek bed, which at this season was of
course dry in most places, wound in
S-shaped curves, with here and there a
pool and here and there a fringe of stunted,
wind-beaten timber. We were camped
69

Good Hunting

near a little grove of ash, box-alder, and
willow, which gave us shade at noonday ;
and there were two or three pools of good
water in the creek bed — one so deep that
I made it my swimming-bath.

The first day that I was able to make
a hunt I rode out with my foreman,
Sylvane Ferris. I was mounted on
Muley. Twelve years before, when Muley
was my favorite cutting -pony on the
round-up, he never seemed to tire or to
lose his dash, but Muley was now sixteen
years old, and on ordinary occasions he
liked to go as soberly as possible ; yet the
good old pony still had the fire latent in
his blood, and at the sight of game — or,
indeed, of cattle or horses — he seemed to
regain for the time being all the head-
long courage of his vigorous and supple
youth.

On the morning in question it was two
or three hours before Sylvane and I saw
70

Shooting the Prong-buck

any game. Our two ponies went steadily
forward at a single foot or shack, as the
cow-punchers term wrhat Easterners call
"a fox trot." Most of the time we were
passing over immense grassy flats, where
the mats of short curled blades lay brown
and parched under the bright sunlight.
Occasionally w^e came to ranges of low,
barren hills, which sent off gently round-
ing spurs into the plain.

It was on one of these ranges that we
first saw our game. As we were travelling
along the divide we spied eight antelope
far ahead of us. They saw us as soon as
we saw them, and the chance of getting
to them seemed small; but it was worth
an effort, for by humoring them when
they start to run, and galloping towards
them at an oblique angle to their line
of flight, there is always some little chance
of getting a shot. Sylvane was on a light
buckskin horse, and I left him on the

Good Hunting

ridge crest to occupy their time while I
cantered off to one side.

The prong-horns became uneasy as I
galloped off, and ran off the ridge crest in
a line nearly parallel to mine. They did
not go very fast, and I held Muley in, who
was all on fire at the sight of the game.
After crossing two or three spurs, the
antelope going at half speed, they found
I had come closer to them, and, turning,
they ran up one of the valleys between
two spurs.

Now was my chance, and, wheeling at
right angles to my former course, I
galloped Muley as hard as I knew how up
the valley nearest and parallel to where
the antelope had gone. The good old
fellow ran like a quarter-horse, and when
we were almost at the main ridge crest
I leaped off, and ran ahead with my rifle
at the ready, crouching down as I came
to the sky-line? Usually on such oc-

Shooting the Prong-buck

casions I find that the antelope have gone
on, and merely catch a glimpse of them
half a mile distant, but on this occasion
everything went right. The band had
just reached the ridge crest about two
hundred and twenty yards from me across
the head of the valley, and I halted for a
moment to look around. They were start-
ing as I raised my rifle, but the trajectory
is very flat with these small-bore smoke-
less-powder weapons, and taking a coarse
front sight I fired at a young buck which

stood broadside to me. There was no

i

smoke, and as the band raced away I
saw him sink backward, the ball having^
broken his hip.

We packed him bodily behind Sylvane*
on the buckskin and continued our
as there was no fresh meat in camp, andj
we wished to bring in a couple of bucks if |
possible. For two or three hours we
nothing. The unshod feet of the horses/
73

Good Hunting

made hardly any noise on the stretches of
sun-cured grass, but now and then we
passed through patches of thin weeds,
their dry stalks rattling curiously, making
a sound like that of a rattlesnake. At
last, coming over a gentle rise of ground,
we spied two more antelopes, half a mile
ahead of us and to our right.

Again there seemed small chance of
bagging our quarry, but again fortune
favored us. I at once cantered Muley
ahead, not towards them, so as to pass
them well on one side. After some hes-
itation they started, not straightaway,
but at an angle to my own course. For
some moments I kept at a hand-gallop,
until they got thoroughly settled in their
line of flight ; then I touched Muley, and
he went as hard as he knew how.

Immediately the two panic-stricken
and foolish beasts seemed to feel that I
was cutting off their line of retreat, and
74

Shooting the Prong-buck

4

raced forward at mad speed. They went
much faster than I did, but I had the
shorter course, and when they crossed
me they were not fifty yards ahead — by
which time I had come nearly a mile.
Muley stopped short, like the trained cow-
pony he was ; I leaped off, and held well
ahead of the rearmost and largest buck.
At the crack of the little rifle down he
went with his neck broken. In a minute
or two he was packed behind me on
Muley, and we bent our steps towards
camp.

During the remainder of my trip we
were never out of fresh meat, for I shot
three other bucks — one after a smart
chase on horseback, and the other two
after careful stalks.

The game being both scarce and shy,

I had to exercise much care, and after

sighting a band I would sometimes hav«

to wait and crawl round for two or three

75

Good Hunting

hours before they would get into a posi-
tion where I had any chance of ap-
proaching. Even then they were more
apt to see me and go off than, I was to
get near them.

Antelope are the only game that can
be hunted as well at noonday as in the
morning or evening, for their times for
sleeping and feeding are irregular. They
never seek shelter from the sun, and when
they lie down for a noonday nap they are
apt to choose a hollow, so as to be out of
the wind; in consequence, if the band is
seen at all at this time, it is easier to
approach them than when they are up
and feeding.

They sometimes come down to water
in the middle of the day, sometimes in the
morning or evening. On this trip I came
across bands feeding and resting at almost
every time of the day. They seemed
usually to feed for a couple of hours, then

A WOUNDED ANTELOPE

Shooting the Prong-buck

rest for a couple of hours, then begin
feeding again.

The last shot I got was when I was out
with Joe Ferris, in whose company I had
killed my first buffalo, just thirteen years
before, and not very far from the spot I
then was at. We had seen two or three
bands that morning, and in each case,
after a couple of hours of useless effort,
I failed to get near enough. At last,
towards mid-day, we got within range of
a small band lying down in a little cup-
shaped hollow in the middle of a great flat.
I did not have a close shot, for they were
running about one hundred and eighty
yards off. The buck was rear-most, and,
at him I aimed ; the bullet struck him in,
the flank, coming out of the opposite
shoulder, and he fell in his next bound.
As we stood over him, Joe shook his head,
and said, "I guess that little 30-30 is the*
ace"; and I told him I guessed so too.
77

A Tame White Goat

•»•»• **'

VI

A TAME WHITE GOAT

NE of the queerest wild
beasts in North America
is the so-called white goat.
It is found all along the
highest peaks of the Rocky
Mountains from Alaska into Montana,
Idaho, and Washington. Really it is not
a goat at all, but a kind of mountain-
antelope, whose nearest kinsfolk are cer-
tain Asiatic antelopes found in the Him-
alayas. It is a squat, powerfully built,
and rather clumsy-looking animal, about;
as heavy as a good-sized deer, but not
tall. It is pure white in color, exceptj
81

Good Hunting

that its hoofs, horns, and muzzle are jet
black. In winter its fleece is very long,
and at that time it wears a long beard,
which makes it look still more like a goat.
It has a very distinct hump on the
shoulders, and the head is usually carried
low.

White goats are quite as queer in their
habits as in their looks. They delight in
cold, and, except in the northernmost
portion of their range, they keep to the
very tops of the mountains ; and at mid-
day, if the sun is at all powerful, retire to
caves to rest themselves. They have the
very curious habit of sitting up on their
haunches, in the attitude of a dog begging,
when looking about for any foe whose
presence they suspect. They are won-
derful climbers, although they have no
liveliness or agility of movement; their
surefootedness and remarkable strength
enable them to go up or down seemingly
82

A Tame White Goat

impossible places. Their great round
hoofs, with sharp-cut edges, can grip the
slightest projection in, the rocks, and no
precipice or ice-wall has any terror for
them. At times they come quite low tow-
ards the foot-hills, usually to visit some
mineral lick, but generally they are found
only in the very high broken ground,
among stupendous crags and precipices.
They are self-confident, rather stupid
beasts, and as they are accustomed to
look for danger only from below, it is an
easy matter to approach them if once the
hunter is able to get above them ; but they
live in such inaccessible places that their
pursuit entails great labor and hardship.
Their sharp black horns are eight or ten
inches long, with points like needles, and
their necks are thick and muscular, so
that they are dangerous enemies for any
foe to handle at close quarters ; and they
know their capacities very well, and are

Good Hunting

confident in their prowess, often prefer-
ring to stand and fight a dog or wolf
rather than to try to run. Nevertheless,
though they are such wicked and resolute
fighters, they have not a few enemies.
The young kids are frequently carried off
by eagles, and mountain-lions, wolves,
and occasionally even wolverenes prey on
the grown animals whenever they venture
down out of their inaccessible resting-
places to prowl along the upper edges of
the timber or on the open terraces of grass
and shrubby mountain plants. If a goat
is on its guard, and can get its back to a
rock, both wolf and panther will fight
shy of facing the thrust of the dagger-like
horns ; but the beasts of prey are so much
more agile and stealthy that if they can
get a goat in the open or take it by sur-
prise, they can readily pull it down.

I have several times shot white goats
for the sake of the trophies afforded by
84

A Tame White Goat

the horns and skins, but I have never
gone after them much, as the work is
very severe, and the flesh usually affords
poor eating, being musky, as there is a
big musk-pod situated between the ear
and the horn. Only a few of the old-
time hunters knew anything about white
goats; and even, nowadays there are not
very many men who go into their haunts
as a steady thing; but the settlers who
live high up in the mountains do come
across them now and then, and they
occasionally have odd stories to relate
about them.

One was told to me by an old fellow
who had a cabin on one of the tributaries
that ran into Flathead Lake. He had
been off prospecting for gold in the moun-
tains early one spring. The life of a
prospector is very hard. He goes alone,
and in these northern mountains he
cannot take with him the donkey which
85

Good Hunting

towards the south is his almost invaria-
ble companion and beast of burden ; the
tangled forests of the northern ranges
make it necessary for him to trust only
to his own power as a pack-bearer, and
he carries merely what he takes on his
own shoulders.

The old fellow in question had been
out for a month before the snow was all
gone, and his dog, a large and rather
vicious hound, to which he was greatly
attached, accompanied him. When his
food gave out he was working his way
back towards Flathead Lake, and struck
a stream, on which he found an old
dug - out canoe, deserted the previous
fall by some other prospector or pros-
pectors. Into this he got, with his
traps and his dog, and started down-
stream.

On the morning of the second day,
while rounding a point of land, he sud-

86

A Tame White Goat

denly came upon two white goats, a fe-
male and a little kid, evidently but a few
weeks old, standing right by the stream.
As soon as they saw him they turned and
galloped clumsily off towards the foot of
the precipice. As he was in need of meat,
he shoved ashore and ran after the fleeing
animals with his rifle, while the dog gal-
loped in front. Just before reaching the
precipice the dog overtook the goats.
When he was almost up, however, the
mother goat turned suddenly around,
while the kid stopped short behind her,
and she threatened the dog with lowered
head. After a second's hesitation the
dog once more resumed his gallop, and
flung himself full on the quarry. It was
a fatal move. As he gave his last leap,
the goat, bending her head down side-
ways, struck viciously, so that one horn
slipped right up to the root into the dog's
chest. The blow was mortal, and the
87

Good Hunting

dog barely had time to give one yelp be-
fore his life passed.

It was, however, several seconds before
the goat could disengage its head from
its adversary, and by that time the en-
raged hunter was close at hand, and with
a single bullet avenged the loss of his dog.
When the goat fell, however, he began to
feel a little ashamed, thinking of the
gallant fight she had made for herself
and kid, and he did not wish to harm the
latter. So he walked forward, trying to
scare it away; but the little thing stood
obstinately near its dead mother, and
butted angrily at him as he came up.
It was far too young to hurt him in any
way, and he was bound not to hurt it,
so he sat down beside it and smoked a
pipe.

When he got up it seemed to have
become used to his presence, and no
longer showed any hostility. For some
88

A Tame White Goat

seconds he debated what to do, fearing
lest it might die if left alone ; then, he came
to the conclusion that it was probably
old enough to do without its mother's
milk, and would have at least a chance
for its life if left to itself. Accordingly, he
walked towards the boat; but he soon
found it was following him. He tried
to frighten it back, but it belonged to
much too stout-hearted a race to yield
to pretence, and on it came after him.
When he reached the boat, after some
hesitation he put the little thing in and
started down-stream. At first the motion
of the boat startled it, and it jumped
right out into the water. When he got
it back, it again jumped out, on to a
bowlder. On being replaced the second «
time, it made no further effort to escape ;
but it puzzled him now and then by sud-
denly standing up with its fore-feet on
the very rim of the ticklish dugout, so
89

j*r^&

i^.*Smi^

Good Hunting

that he had to be very careful how he
balanced. Finally, however, it got used
to the motion of the canoe, and it was
then a very contented and amusing
passenger.

The last part of the journey, after its
owner abandoned the canoe, was per-
formed with the kid slung on his back.
Of course it again at first objected stren-
uously to this new mode of progress,
but in time it became quite reconciled,
and accepted the situation philosophi-
cally. When the prospector reached his
cabin his difficulties were at an end. The
little goat had fallen off very much in
flesh ; for though it would browse of its
own accord around the camp at night, it
was evidently too young to take to the
change kindly.

Before reaching the cabin, however,
it began to pick up again, and it soon
became thoroughly at home amid its
90

A Tame White Goat

new surroundings. It was very familiar,
not only with the prospector, but with
strangers, and evidently regarded the
cabin as a kind of safety spot. Though
it would stray off into the surrounding
woods, it never ventured farther than
two or three hundred yards, and after an
absence of half an hour or so at the
longest, it would grow alarmed, and come
back at full speed, bounding along like
a wild buck through the woods, until it
reached what it evidently deemed its
haven of refuge.

Its favorite abode was the roof of the;;'
cabin, at one corner of which, where thev
projecting ends of the logs were uneven,
it speedily found a kind of ladder,
which it would climb until the roof w;
reached. Sometimes it would promenad<
along the ridge, and at other times moun
the chimney, which it would hastil;
abandon, however, when a fire was lit.
91

Good Hunting

The presence of a dog always resulted in
immediate flight, first to the roof, and
then to the chimney; and when it came
inside the cabin it was fond of jumping on
a big wooden shelf above the fireplace,
which served as a mantel-piece.

If teased it was decidedly truculent;
but its tameness and confidence, and the
quickness with which it recognized any
friend, made it a great favorite, not only
with the prospector, but with his few
neighbors. However, the little thing did
not live very long. Whether it was the
change of climate or something wrong
with its food, when, the hot weather came
on it pined gradually away, and one
morning it was found dead, lying on its
beloved roof-tree. The prospector had
grown so fond of it that, as he told me,
he gave it a burial "just as if it were a
Christian. "

Ranching

VII

RANCHING

HERE are in every com-
munity young men to
whom life at the desk or
behind the counter is un-
utterably dreary and un-
attractive, and who long for some out-of-
door occupation which shall, if possible,
contain a spice of excitement. These
young men can be divided into two
classes — first, those who, if they get a
chance to try the life for which they long,
will speedily betray their utter inability
to lead it; and, secondly, those who
possess the physical capacity and the
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Good Hunting

peculiar mental make-up necessary for
success in an employment far out of the
usual paths of civilized occupations. A
great many of these young men think of
ranching as a business which they might
possibly take up, and what I am about
to say 1 is meant as much for a warning

t to one class as for advice to the other.

Ranching is a rather indefinite term.
In a good many parts of the West a ranch
simply means a farm ; but I shall not use
it in this sense, since the advantages and
disadvantages of a farmer's life, whether
it be led in New Jersey or Iowa, have
often been dwelt upon by men infinitely
more competent than I am to pass judg-

; ment. Accordingly, when I speak of
ranching I shall mean some form of stock-
raising or sheep-farming as practised now
in the wilder parts of the United States,

1 Written in 1896.

Ranching

where there is still plenty of land which,
because of the lack of rainfall, is not very
productive for agricultural purposes.

The first thing to be remembered by
any boy or young man who wishes to go
West and start life on a cattle ranch,
horse ranch, or sheep ranch is that he
must know the business thoroughly before
he can earn any salary to speak of, still
less start out on his own accord. A
great many young fellows apparently
think that a cow-boy is born and not made,
and that in order to become one all they
have to do is to wish very hard to be one.
Now, as a matter of fact, a young fellow
trained as a book-keeper would take quite
as long to learn the trade of a cow-boy
as the average cow-boy would take
learn the trade of book-keeper. The first
thing that the beginner anywhere in the
wilder parts of the West has to learn is
the capacity to stand monotony, fatigue,
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and hardship; the next thing is to learn
the nature of the country.

A young fellow from the East who has
been brought up on a farm, or who has
done hard manual labor as a machinist,
need not go through a novitiate of manual
labor in order to get accustomed to the
roughness that such labor implies; but
a boy just out of a high-school, or a
young clerk, will have to go through just
such a novitiate before he will be able to
command a dollar's pay. Both alike will
have to learn the nature of the country,
and this can only be learned by actual
experience on the ground.

Again, the beginner must remember
that though there is occasional excite-
ment and danger in a ranchman's life,
it is only occasional, while the monotony
of hard and regular toil is not often
broken. Except in the matter of fresh
air and freedom from crowding, a small
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Ranching

ranchman often leads a life of as grinding
hardness as the average dweller in a New
York tenement-house. His shelter is a
small log hut, or possibly a dugout in the
side of a bank, or in summer a shabby
tent. For food he will have to depend
mainly on the bread of his own baking,
on fried fat pork, and on coffee or tea
with sugar and no milk. Of course he
will occasionally have some canned stuff
or potatoes. The furniture of the hut is
of the roughest description — a roll of
blankets for bedding, a bucket, a tin
wash-basin, and a tin mug, with perhaps
a cracked looking-glass four inches square.
He will not have much society of any
kind, and the society he does have is not
apt to be over-refined. If he is a lad of a
delicate, shrinking nature and fastidious
habits, he will find much that is uncom-
fortable, and will need to show no small
amount of pluck and fortitude if he is to
99

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hold his own. The work, too, is often
hard and often wearisome from mere
sameness. It is generally done on horse-
back even on a sheep ranch, and always
on a cow ranch. The beginner must
learn to ride with indifference all kinds of
rough and dangerous horses before he
will be worth his keep.

With all this before him, the beginner
will speedily find out that life on a
Western ranch is very far from being a
mere holiday. A young man who desires
to start in the life ought, if possible, to
have with him a little money — just
enough to keep body and soul together —
until he can gain a foothold somewhere.

No specific directions can be given him
as to where to start. Wyoming, most
of Montana, the western edge of the
Dakotas, western Texas, and some por-
tions of the Rocky Mountain States still
offer chances for a man to go into the
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Ranching

ranch business. In different seasons in
the different localities business may be
good or bad, and it would be impossible
to tell where was the best place to start.
Wherever the beginner goes, he ought
to make up his mind at the outset to
start by doing any kind of work he can.
Let him chop wood, hoe, do any chore
that will bring him in twenty-five cents.
If he is once able to start by showing that
he is willing to work hard and do some-
thing, he can probably get employment of
some kind, although this employment will
almost certainly be very ill paid and not
attractive. Perhaps it will be to dig in
a garden, or to help one of the men drive
oxen, or to do the heavy work around
camp for some party of cow-punchers or
lumberers. Whatever it is, let the boy
go at it with all his might, and at the
same time take every opportunity to get*
acquainted with the kind of life which he
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Good Hunting

intends ultimately to lead. If he wishes
to try to ride a horse, he will have
every chance, if for no other reason than
that he will continually meet men whose
ideas of fun are met by the spectacle of a
tenderfoot on a bucking bronco.

By degrees he will learn a good deal of
the ways of the life and of the country.
Then he must snatch the first chance that
goffers itself to take a position in con-
nection with the regular work of a ranch.
^He may be employed as a regular hand to
'help cook on the ranch wagon, or taken
by a shepherd to do the hard and dirty
work which the shepherd would like to
put off on somebody else. When he has
k once got as far as this his rise is certain,
L if he is not afraid of labor, and keeps a
| lookout for the opportunities that offer.
.After a while he will have a horse him-
| self, and he will be employed as a second-
I rate man to do the ordinary ranch work.

IO2

Ranching

Work on a sheep ranch is less attrac-
tive, but more profitable than on any
other. A good deal of skill must be
shown by the shepherd in managing his
flock and in handling the sheep dogs;
but ordinarily it is appallingly dreary
to sit all day long in the sun, or loll about
in the saddle, watching the flocks of
fleecy idiots. In time of storm he must
work like a demon and know exactly
what to do, or his whole flock will die
before his eyes, sheep being as tender as
horses and cattle are tough.

With the work of a cow ranch or horse
ranch there comes more excitement.
Every man on such a ranch has a string
of eight or ten horses for his own riding,
and there is a great deal of excitingj
galloping and hot riding across the plains
and the work in a stampede at night, o:
in line-riding during the winter, or i:
breaking the fierce little horses to th

103

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Good Hunting

saddle, is as exciting as it is hard and
dangerous.

The wilder phases of the life, however,
are steadily passing away. Almost every-
where great wire fences are being put up,
and no small part of the cow-boy's duty
nowadays is to ride along the line of a
fence and repair it wherever broken.
Moreover, at present [1896] the business
of cattle or horse raising on the plains
does not pay well, and, except in pe-
culiar cases, can hardly be recommend-
ed to a boy ambitious for his future.

So much for the unattractive reality
of ranch life. It would be unfair not to
point out that it has a very attractive
side also. If the boy is fond of open-air
exercise, and willing to risk tumbles that
may break an occasional bone, and to
endure at need heat and cold, hunger and
thirst, he will find much that is pleasant
in the early mornings on the great plains,

Ranching

particularly on the rare days when he
is able to take a few hours* holiday to
go with his shot-gun after prairie-chickens
or ducks, or, perchance, to ride out with
a Winchester rifle to a locality where on
one of his working days he has seen, a
small band of antelope standing in the
open, or caught a glimpse of a deer
bounding through the brush. There is
little temptation to spend money, unless
he is addicted to the coarsest kind of
dissipation, and after a few years the
young fellow ought to have some hun-
dreds of dollars laid aside. By this
time he should know all about the
business and the locality, and should
be able to gauge just what he can ac-
complish.

For a year or two perhaps he can try to

run a little outfit of his own in connection

with his work on a big ranch. Then he

will abandon the latter and start out en-

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Good Hunting

tirely on his own account. Disaster may
overtake him, as it may overtake any
business man ; but if he wins success, even
though of a moderate kind, he has a
pleasant life before him, riding about over
the prairie among his own horses or cat-
tle or sheep, occasionally taking a day
off to go after game, and, while working
hard, not having to face the mere drudg-
jery which he had to encounter as a
tyro.

The chances are very small that he will
ever gain great wealth; and when he
marries and has children of his own there
are many uncomfortable problems to face,
the chief being that of schools ; but for a
fc young man in good health and of advent-
iurous temper the life is certainly pleas-
banter than that of one cooped up in the
^counting-room, and while it is not one to
| be sought save by the very few who have
I a natural liking for it, and a natural
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Ranching

capacity to enjoy it and profit by it, still
for these few people it remains one of
the most attractive forms of existence
in America.

THE END