Ranching in the Bad Lands. 41 



difficult shots either. One secret of his success is his 

 constant practice. He is firing all the time, at marks, 

 small birds, etc., etc., and will average from fifty to a hun- 

 dred cartridges a day ; he certainly uses nearly twenty 

 thousand a year, while a man who only shoots for sport, 

 and that occasionally, will, in practising at marks and 

 every thing else, hardly get through with five hundred. 

 Besides, he was cradled in the midst of wild life, and has 

 handled a rifle and used it against both brute and human 

 foes almost since his infancy ; his nerves and sinews are 

 like iron, and his eye is naturally both quick and true. 



Vic is an exception. With practice an amateur will 

 become nearly as good a shot as the average hunter ; and, 

 as I said before, I do not myself believe in taking out a 

 professional hunter as a shooting companion. If I do not 

 go alone I generally go with one of my foremen, Merri- 

 field, who himself came from the East but five years ago. 

 He is a good-looking fellow, daring and self-reliant, a 

 good rider and first-class shot, and a very keen sportsman. 

 Of late years he has been my fidus Achates of the hunt- 

 ing field. I can kill more game with him than I can 

 alone ; and in hunting on the plains there are many 

 occasions on which it is almost a necessity to have a 

 companion along. 



It frequently happens that a solitary hunter finds him- 

 self in an awkward predicament, from which he could be 

 extricated easily enough if there were another man with 

 him. His horse may fall into a wash-out, or may get 

 stuck in a mud-hole or quicksand in such a manner that 

 a man working by himself will have great difficulty in 



