34 The Wilderness Hunter 



buffalo bushes, spangled with brilliant red berry- 

 clusters, choked the spaces between the thick-grow 

 ing box-alders; and again the sure-footed ponies 

 scrambled down one cut bank and up another, 

 through seemingly impossible rifts, or with gingerly 

 footsteps trod a path which cut the side of a butte 

 or overhung a bluff. Sometimes we racked, or 

 shacked along at the fox trot which is the cow-pony s 

 ordinary gait; and sometimes we loped or galloped 

 and ran. 



At last we came to the ford beyond which the 

 riders of the round-up had made their camp. In the 

 bygone days of the elk and buffalo, when our branded 

 cattle were first driven thus far north, this ford had 

 been dangerous from quicksand ; but the cattle, ever 

 crossing and recrossing, had trodden down and set 

 tled the sand, and had found out the firm places; 

 so that it was now easy to get over. 



Close beyond the trees on the further bank stood 

 the two round-up wagons; near by was the cook s 

 fire, in a trench, so that it might not spread; the 

 bedding of the riders and horse-wranglers lay scat 

 tered about, each roll of blankets wrapped and corded 

 in a stout canvas sheet. The cook was busy about 

 the fire; the night-wrangler was snatching an hour 

 or two s sleep under one of the wagons. Half a 

 mile away, on the plain of sage brush and long grass, 

 the day-wrangler was guarding the grazing or rest 

 ing horse herd, of over a hundred head. Still 



