34 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



run across and killed with the rifle while the hunter 

 is after some other game. 



As already said, ranchmen do not have much idle 

 time on their hands, for their duties are manifold, 

 and they need to be ever on the watch against their 

 foes, both animate and inanimate. Where a man 

 has so much to do he can not spare a great deal of 

 his time for any amusement ; but a good part of that 

 which the ranchman can spare he is very apt to 

 spend in hunting. His quarry will be one of -the 

 seven kinds of plains game bear, buffalo, elk, big- 

 horn, antelope, blacktail, or whitetail deer. Moose, 

 caribou, and white goat never come down into the 

 cattle country; and it is only on the Southern 

 ranches near the Rio Grande and the Rio Colorado 

 that the truculent peccary and the great spotted 

 jaguar are found. 



Until recently all sporting on the plains was con- 

 fined to army officers, or to men of leisure who made 

 extensive trips for no other purpose; leaving out of 

 consideration the professional hunters, who trapped 

 and shot for their livelihood. But with the incoming 

 of the cattlemen, there grew up a class of residents, 

 men with a stake in the welfare of the country, and 

 with a regular business carried on in it, many of 

 whom were keenly devoted to sport, a class whose 

 members were in many respects closely akin to the 

 old Southern planters. In this book I propose to 

 give some description of the kind of sport that can 

 be had by the average ranchman who is fond of the 

 rifle. Of course no man with a regular business can 



