32 The Wilderness Hunter 



on them while about our ordinary business, indeed 

 throughout the time that I have lived on the ranch, 

 very many of the deer and antelope I killed were 

 thus obtained. Of course while doing the actual 

 round-up work it is impossible to attend to anything 

 else; but we generally carry rifles while riding after 

 the saddle band in the early morning, while visiting 

 the line camps, or while in the saddle among the 

 cattle on the range; and get many a shot in this 

 fashion. 



In the fall of 1890 some friends came to my ranch ; 

 and one day we took them to see a round-up. The 

 OX, a Texan steer-outfit, had sent a couple of wag- 

 ons to work down the river, after beef cattle, and 

 one of my men had gone along to gather any of my 

 own scattered steers that were ready for shipping, 

 and to brand the late calves. There were perhaps 

 a dozen riders with the wagons ; and they were 

 camped for the day on a big bottom where Blacktail 

 and Whitetail creeks. open into the river, several 

 miles below my ranch. 



At dawn one of the men rode off to. bring in the 

 saddle band. The rest of us were up by sunrise ; and 

 as we stood on the veranda under the shimmering 

 cottonwood trees, reveling in the blue of the cloud- 

 less sky, and drinking in the cool air before going to 

 breakfast, we saw the motley-colored string of ponies 

 file down from the opposite bank of the river, and 

 splash across the broad, shallow ford in front of the 



