128 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



of country have to be covered, as in antelope shoot- 

 ing, hunting on horseback is almost the only way 

 followed; but the haunts and habits of the white- 

 tail deer render it nearly useless to try to kill them 

 in this way, as the horse would be sure to alarm 

 them by making a noise, and even if he did not 

 there would hardly be time to dismount and take 

 a snap shot. Only once have I ever killed a white- 

 tail buck while hunting on horseback; and at that 

 time I had been expecting to fall in with black-tail. 

 This was while we had been making a wagon 

 trip to the westward following the old Keogh trail, 

 which was made by the heavy army wagons that 

 journeyed to Fort Keogh in the old days when the 

 soldiers were, except a few daring trappers, the 

 only white men to be seen on the last great hunting- 

 ground of the Indians. It was abandoned as a 

 military route several years ago, and is now only 

 rarely traveled over, either by the canvas-topped 

 ranch-wagon of some wandering cattle-men like 

 ourselves, or else by a small party of emigrants, 

 in two or three prairie schooners, which contain all 

 their household goods. Nevertheless, it is still as 

 plain and distinct as ever. The two deep parallel 

 ruts, cut into the sod by the wheels of the heavy 

 wagons, stretch for scores of miles in a straight line 

 across the level prairie, and take great turns and 

 doublings to avoid the impassable portions of the 

 Bad Lands. The track is always perfectly plain, 

 for in the dry climate of the Western plains the 

 action of the weather tends to preserve rather than 



