58 The Wilderness Hunter 



country. My foreman, who had a large way of 

 looking at questions of foreign ethnology and geog- 

 raphy, responded with indifference: "Oh, he's a 

 kind of a Dutchman ; but he hates the other Dutch, 

 mortal. He's from an island Germany took from 

 France in the last war!" This seemed puzzling; 

 but it turned out that the "island" in question was 

 Alsace. Native Americans predominate among the 

 dwellers in and on the borders of the wilderness, 

 and in the wild country over which the great herds 

 of the cattlemen roam; and they take the lead in 

 every way. The sons of the Germans, Irish, and 

 other European newcomers are usually quick to 

 claim to be "straight United States," and to dis- 

 avow all kinship with the fellow-countrymen of their 

 fathers. Once while with a hunter bearing a German 

 name we came by chance on a German hunting 

 party from one of the Eastern cities. One of them 

 remarked to my companion that he must be part 

 German himself, to which he cheerfully answered: 

 "Well, my father was a Dutchman, but my mother 

 was a white woman! I'm pretty white myself!" 

 whereat the Germans glowered at him gloomily. 



As we were out of meat the Alsatian and one of 

 the cowboys and I started down the river with a 

 wagon. The first day in camp it rained hard, so 

 that we could not hunt. Toward evening we grew 

 tired of doing nothing, and as the rain had become 

 a mere fine drizzle, we sallied out to drive one of 



