4: MY GUNS AND DOGS. 



usefulness, by which their success had Ibeen achieved. I 

 left England, then, not only for my own pleasure., but to 

 be able to tell Englishmen in what way they should pro 

 ceed on a visit to the Far West, what adventures they 

 would most likely encounter, what would be the costs of 

 their journey, and how they had best fit themselves out, and 

 at the least expense. Due regard to personal safety also 

 being kept in view, when they formed theirc amp or caravan 

 to travel hundreds of miles over a desert, where fever and 

 ague were rife, water scarce, roving robbers of the white 

 class many, and Indians in thousands, whose readiness for 

 war-paint or peace could never for an instant be relied on. 

 Besides ascertaining these things, so requisite to plea 

 sure, sport, and the gaming of useful knowledge for a 

 man cannot reap the benefit of wide research unless his 

 mind is free to general and uninterrupted application I 

 had it in contemplation to ascertain which of the English 

 dogs, or how many of their kinds, might be made service 

 able in America. Of the climate, in regard to English 

 dogs, I had no fear ; the sorts of game, and the nature of 

 the country over which that game had to be sought, were 

 the points on which I deemed it necessary to obtain in 

 formation. Another question also had to be set at rest, 

 and that was the species of firearm best adapted to the 

 different kinds of game. Of guns and rifles (breech and 

 muzzle-loaders) I had great choice, and the perfection of 

 the English make. The London gunmakers were John 

 Manton, of Dover-street ; Prince, of London ; and, in 

 addition, Pape, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. How I applied 

 the perfect weapons they supplied me with, and what 

 their firearms achieved in my hands, I must also leave 

 to the due course of the following narrative. That nar 

 rative will consist of my line of travel through the United 



