32 Ranching in the Bad Lands. 



and with whom they waged constant and ferocious wai 

 In the government expeditions against the plains tribes 

 they were of absolutely invaluable assistance as scouts 

 They rarely had regular wives or white children, and there 

 are none to take their places, now that the greater part of 

 them have gone. For the men who carry on hunting as a 

 business where it is perfectly safe have all the vices of their 

 prototypes, but, not having to face the dangers that beset the 

 latter, so neither need nor possess the stern, rough virtues 

 that were required in order to meet and overcome them. 

 The ranks of the skin-hunters and meat-hunters contain 

 some good men ; but as a rule they are a most unlovely 

 race of beings, not excelling even in the pursuit which 

 they follow because they are too shiftless to do any thing 

 else ; and the sooner they vanish the better. 



A word as to weapons and hunting dress. When I 

 first came to the plains I had a heavy Sharps rifle, 45-120, 

 shooting an ounce and a quarter of lead, and a 5ocalibre, 

 double-barrelled English express. Both of these, espe- 

 cially the latter, had a vicious recoil ; the former was very 

 clumsy ; and above all they were neither of them re- 

 peaters ; for a repeater or magazine gun is as much superior 

 to a single- or double-barrelled breech-loader as the latter 

 is to a muzzle-loader. I threw them both aside : and have 

 instead a 40-90 Sharps for very long range work ; a 

 5o-n5 6-shot Bullard express, which has the velocity, 

 shock, and low trajectory of the English gun ; and, better 

 than either, a 45-75 half-magazine Winchester. The Win- 

 chester, which is stocked and sighted to suit myself, is by 

 all odds the best weapon I ever had, and I now use it 



