LETTER V. )i 



beasts as if encouraging and reassuring them by 

 the sound of his voice. By-and-by he sighted 

 our party, and recognising S., asked him to give 

 some message for him at Alison's. The unfortu- 

 nate S. seized the opportunity to ask if one of 

 the drovers could take our bearskin back to 

 Hope, and was promptly overwhelmed by a flow 

 of strong language, rich and varied in quality, 

 for his folly, as if the beasts knew his infernal 

 voice ! Did he want to scare the whole band 

 back to the Ashinola ? So difficult is it to get 

 these beasts to ' drive ' quietly through this 

 timbered country that everyone has to treat 

 them with as much consideration as if they were 

 royal personages, instead of good-looking beasts 

 with a good deal of Hereford and shorthorn 

 blood in them, being driven by their owner (a 

 man worth several thousands a year) to Hope for 

 shipment to market. Ten to twelve miles a day 

 is all the cattle will do ; the distance they come 

 is about 100 miles, and a drive of this kind has 

 to be made from the ranche in question once a 

 fortnight all through summer. So that ranching 

 is not all beer and skittles. The cattle and the 

 pack-trains in the early fall use the trail so much 

 that you rarely see game en route, even if your 

 bell is not going, but at other times deer are 

 plentiful enough. 



