Ranching in the Bad Lands 35 



have such opportunities as fall to the lot of some who 

 pass their lives in hunting only ; and we can not pre 

 tend to equal the achievements of such men, for with 

 us it is merely a pleasure, to be eagerly sought after 

 when we have the chance, but not to be allowed to 

 interfere with our business. No ranchmen have time 

 to make such extended trips as are made by some 

 devotees of sport who are so fortunate as to have 

 no every-day work to which to attend. Still, ranch 

 life undoubtedly offers more chance to a man to 

 get sport than is now the case with any other occu 

 pation in America, and those who follow it are apt 

 to be men of game spirit, fond of excitement and ad 

 venture, who perforce lead an open-air life, who 

 must needs ride well, for they are often in the 

 saddle from sunrise to sunset, and who naturally 

 take kindly to that noblest of weapons, the rifle. 

 With such men hunting is one of the chief of pleas 

 ures; and they follow it eagerly when their work 

 will allow them. And with some of them it is at times 

 more than a pleasure. On many of the ranches on 

 my own, for instance the supply of fresh meat 

 depends mainly on the skill of the riflemen, and so, 

 both for pleasure and profit, most ranchmen do a 

 certain amount of hunting each season. The buffalo 

 are now gone forever, and the elk are rapidly shar 

 ing their fate; but antelope and deer are still quite 

 plentiful, and will remain so for some years; and 

 these are the common game of the plainsman. Nor 

 is it likely that the game will disappear much before 

 ranch life itself is a thing of the past. It is a phase 



