Deer of the River Bottoms. 121 



with no companionship except that of the bleating idiots 

 they are hired to guard. No man can associate with sheep 

 and retain his self-respect. Intellectually a sheep is about 

 on the lowest level of the brute creation ; why the early 

 Christians admired it, whether young or old, is to a good 

 cattle-man always a profound mystery. 



The wagon came on to the creek, along whose banks 

 we had taken shelter, and we then went into camp. It 

 rained all night, and there was a thick mist, with con- 

 tinual sharp showers, all the next day and night. The 

 wheeling was, in consequence, very heavy, and after 

 striking the Keogh trail we were able to go along it 

 but a few miles before the fagged-out look of the team 

 and the approach of evening warned us that we should 

 have to go into camp while still a dozen miles from any 

 pool or spring. Accordingly we made what would have 

 been a dry camp had it not been for the incessant down- 

 pour of rain, which we gathered in the canvas wagon- 

 sheet and in our oilskin overcoats in sufficient quantity 

 to make coffee, having with infinite difficulty started a 

 smouldering fire just to leeward of the wagon. The 

 horses, feeding on the soaked grass, did not need water. 

 An antelope, with the bold and heedless curiosity some- 

 times shown by its tribe, came up within two hundred 

 yards of us as we were building the fire ; but though one 

 of us took a shot at him, it missed. Our shaps and oil- 

 skins had kept us perfectly dry, and as soon as our frugal 

 supper was over, we coiled up among the boxes and 

 bundles inside the wagon and slept soundly till day- 

 break. 



