164 Hunting the Grisly 



them utter the beautiful love song in which 

 they sometimes indulge at night. 



The country was all under wire fence, un- 

 like the northern regions, the pastures, how- 

 ever, being sometimes many miles across. 

 When we reached the Frio ranch a herd of 

 a thousand cattle had just been gathered, and 

 two or three hundred beeves and young stock 

 were being cut out to be driven northward 

 over the trail. The cattle were worked in 

 pens much more than in the North, and on all 

 the ranches there were chutes with steering 

 gates, by means of which the individuals of 

 a herd could be dexterously shifted into va- 

 rious corrals. The branding of the calves 

 was done ordinarily in one of these corrals 

 and on foot, the calf being always roped by 

 both fore-legs ; otherwise the work of the cow- 

 punchers was much like that of their brothers 

 in the North. As a whole, however, they 

 were distinctly more proficient with the rope, 

 and at least half of them were Mexicans. 



There were some bands of wild cattle liv- 

 ing only in the densest timber of the river 

 bottoms which were literally as wild as deer, 

 and moreover very fierce and dangerous. The 

 pursuit of these was exciting and hazardous 

 in the extreme. The men who took part in 



