82 Grouse. 



against Indian outbreaks. Having taken care of the beef 

 herd, I determined to visit a little bunch of cattle which 

 was some thirty-five miles down the river, under the care of 

 one of my men a grizzled old fellow, born in Maine, 

 whose career had been varied to an extent only possible in 

 America, he having successively followed the occupations 

 of seaman, druggist, clerk, buffalo hunter, and cowboy. 



I intended to start about noon, but there was so much 

 business to settle that it was an hour and a half afterwards 

 before I put spurs to the smart little cow-pony and loped 

 briskly down the valley. It was a sharp day, the mercury 

 well down towards zero ; and the pony, fresh and untired, 

 and impatient of standing in the cold, went along at a 

 good rate ; but darkness sets in so early at this season 

 that I had not gone many miles before I began to 

 fear that I would not reach the shack by nightfall. The 

 well-beaten trail followed along the bottoms for some 

 distance and then branched out into the Bad Lands, 

 leading up and down through the ravines and over the 

 ridge crests of some very rough and broken country, 

 and crossing a great level plateau, over which the wind 

 blew savagely, sweeping the powdery snow clean off of 

 the bent blades of short, brown grass. After making a 

 wide circle of some twelve miles the trail again came back 

 to the Little Missouri, and led along the bottoms between 

 the rows of high bluffs, continually crossing and recrossing 

 the river. These crossings were difficult and disagreeable 

 for the horse, as they always are when the ice is not quite 

 heavy enough to bear. The water had not frozen until 

 two or three days before, and the cold snap had not yet 



