Travelling in the Western Hunting Grounds. 5 



toilet comprise but a toothbrush and comb, both the worse for 

 wear; while one's wardrobe has been fined down to a flannel shirt 

 with buckskin strings in lieu of buttons, patched " overalls," and 

 home-made moccasins that, if dry, don't leave one's feet day or night, 

 or, if wet, are dried at the camp fire. Equally a source of worry 

 and delay is the amazingly complete camp outfit, the folding tables 

 and chairs, the camp bed and air-mattress, the heavy tents with 

 hinged poles, and all the other etceteras with which the would-be 

 explorer usually saddles himself at the advice of the Bond-street 

 or Cornhill outfitter. Every couple of hundredweight means an 

 extra horse ; every three horses means an extra man ; every extra 

 man means at least two extra horses to carry his impedimenta, store 

 of provisions, and himself ; and last, but not least, every extra man 

 adds to the chance of internecine camp feuds, every extra horse to 

 the probability of trouble and delay in consequence of sore backs, 

 straying, or of a stampede. To travel light, with an ample store of 

 everything that is really essential, but with nothing that is not 

 absolutely needed, is the true secret whereby to ensure a good bag 

 and a good time, especially if the exploration of as yet unmapped 

 countries happens to be among the objects of the expedition. 



A score of years ago, short as that span appears in Old World 

 time-keeping, things out West were very different to what they are 

 to-day. The hunting ground might then be said still to comprise 

 a great portion of that 1200 miles wide, and 3000 miles long belt 

 of country lying between the Missouri and the apex of the Rockies 

 known as the Plains. The pick of it all was in the North-west 

 Colorado, in Central and Western Wyoming, in Montana, the 

 whole of Idaho, and all the Eastern part of Washington. What are 



to the tent. Sir John, however, was not in the humour to take the hint, and the 

 engagement between the two came to a sudden termination, more to the 

 disturbance of Sir John's temper than to that of his quondam valet. The latter's 

 parting shot was full of Wyoming humour. " You ain't quite the top-shelfer 

 you think you is, you ain't even got a shower-bath for cooling your swelled 

 head \ Angl. pride], but I'll make you a present of one, boss," and pulling his 

 six-shooter, he smilingly made a sieve of the bottom of the hapless bathtub by 

 emptying the six chambers into it ! 



