38 The Wilderness Hunter 



wrestlers had hard work; and one or two young 

 maverick bulls that is, unbranded yearling bulls, 

 which had been passed by in the round-ups of the 

 preceding year fought viciously, bellowing and 

 charging, and driving some of the men up the 

 sides of the corral, to the boisterous delight of the 

 others. 



After watching the work for a little while we left 

 and rode homeward. Instead of going along the 

 river bottoms we struck back over the buttes. From 

 time to time we came out on some sharp bluff over 

 looking the river. From these points of vantage we 

 could see for several miles up and down the valley 

 of the Little Missouri. The level bottoms were 

 walled in by rows of sheer cliffs, and steep, grassy 

 slopes. These bluff lines were from a quarter of 

 a mile to a mile apart; they did not run straight, 

 but in a succession of curves, so as to look like the 

 halves of many amphitheatres. Between them the 

 river swept in great bends from side to side; the 

 wide bed, brimful during the time of freshets, now 

 held but a thin stream of water. Some of the bot 

 toms were covered only with grass and sage brush; 

 others were a dense jungle of trees; while yet others 

 looked like parks, the cottonwoods growing in 

 curved lines or in clumps scattered here and there. 



On our way we came across a bunch of cattle, 

 among which the sharp eyes of my foreman detected 

 a maverick two-year-old heifer. He and one of the 



