174 HUNTING THE GRTSLY. 



tried cross-country riding in England, and 

 had shown themselves pre-eminently skilful 

 thereat, doing better than the English fox- 

 hunters, but this I take the liberty to disbe- 

 lieve. I was in England at the time, hunted 

 occasionally myself, and was with many of 

 the men who were all the time riding in the 

 most famous hunts ; men, too, who were 

 greatly impressed with the exhibitions of 

 rough riding then being given by Buffalo Bill 

 and his men, and who talked of them much ; 

 and yet I never, at the time, heard of an in- 

 stance in which one of the cowboys rode to 

 hounds with any marked success. 1 In the 

 same way I have sometimes in New York or 

 London heard of men who, it was alleged, had 

 been out West and proved better riders than 

 the bronco-busters themselves, just as I have 

 heard of similar men who were able to go out 

 hunting in the Rockies or on the plains and 

 get more game than the western hunters ; but 

 in the course of a long experience in the West 

 I have yet to see any of these men, whether 

 from the eastern States or from Europe, act- 

 tually show such superiority or perform such 

 feats. 



It would be interesting to compare the per- 

 formances of the Australian stock-riders with 

 those of our own cowpunchers, both in cow- 

 work and in riding. The Australians have 

 an entirely different kind of saddle, and the 



1 It is, however, quite possible, now that Buffalo Bill's company 

 has crossed the water several times, that a number of the cowboys 

 have by practice become proficient in riding to hounds, and m 

 eteeple-chasing. 



