62 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



water can easily be had, at least at the night camps, 

 for on a pinch a wagon can be pushed along thirty 

 miles or so at a stretch, giving the tough ponies 

 merely a couple of hours rest and feed at midday; 

 but in going through an unknown country it has 

 been my misfortune on more than one occasion to 

 make a dry camp that is, one without any water 

 either for men or horses, and such camps are most 

 uncomfortable. The thirst seems to be most annoy 

 ing just after sundown; after one has gotten to 

 sleep and the air has become cool, he is not troubled 

 much by it again until within two or three hours of 

 noon next day, when the chances are that he will 

 have reached water, for of course by that time he 

 will have made a desperate push to get to it. When 

 found, it is more than likely to be bad, being either 

 from a bitter alkaline pool, or from a hole in a creek, 

 so muddy that it can only be called liquid by cour 

 tesy. On the great plains wood is even scarcer, 

 and at least half the time the only material from 

 which to make a fire will be buffalo chips and sage 

 brush ; the long roots of the latter if dug up make a 

 very hot blaze. Of course when wood is so scarce 

 the fire is a small one, used merely to cook by, and 

 is not kept up after the cooking is over. 



When a place with grass, wood, and water is 

 found, the wagon is driven up to the windward 

 side of where the beds are to be laid, and the horses 

 are unhitched, watered, and turned out to graze 

 freely until bedtime, when a certain number of 

 them are picketed or hobbled. If danger from 



