Hunting with Hounds 107 



ally myself, and was with many of the men 

 who were all the time riding in the most fa 

 mous hunts; men, too, who were greatly im 

 pressed with the exhibitions of rough riding 

 then being given by Buffalo Bill and his men, 

 and who talked of them much ; and yet I never, 

 at the time, heard of an instance in which one 

 of the cowboys rode to hounds with any 

 marked success.* In the same way I have 

 sometimes in New York or London heard of 

 men who, it was alleged, had been out West 

 and proved better riders than the bronco- 

 busters themselves, just as I have heard of 

 similar men who were able to go out hunting 

 in the Rockies or on the plains and get more 

 game than the Western hunters; but in the 

 course of a long experience in the West I 

 have yet to see any of these men, whether 

 from the Eastern States or from Europe, ac 

 tually show such superiority or perform such 

 feats. 



It would be interesting to compare the per 

 formances of the Australian stock-riders with 

 those of our own cowpunchers, both in cow- 



1 It is, however, quite possible, now that Buffalo Bill s 

 company has crossed the water several times, that a number 

 of the cowboys have by practice become proficient in riding 

 to hounds, and in steeple-chasing. 



