6 AMERICAN IDENTIFICATION. 



facility or counsel, not only as to my journey to the Far 

 West, but more particularly as to the conveyance of rny 

 dogs, unprotected as they were by their laws, and not 

 even recognized on the rail as things for which the com 

 pany had provided any means of conveyance. When I 

 assure my readers that this apparent neglect " surprised 

 me," that surprise only lasted till I became better and 

 locally acquainted with the men among whom I was 

 about to travel. When I made their acquaintance I 

 understood it all, and for brevity's sake, as well as per 

 spicuity, my knowledge is summed up in the following 

 few words : 



No man who signs himself of whatever rank is gener 

 ally believed to be the person he represents himself to 

 be until some other man in America introduces him ac 

 cording to the signature he has given out. The Presi 

 dent is not believed to be the President, and Mr Cobden 

 is not believed to be the free-trade orator, when on tra 

 vel, unless, like sharks, they have a pilot fish or "man 

 in black" to verify or proclaim their individuality 

 hence no one believed in me. 



It was a giant task that which I had to do in three 

 months. Agriculturally speaking, a huge stubble lay 

 before me, into which I was to go as a gleaner a gleaner 

 never to stoop nor stop, but to pick up everything at 

 a run, and to reach the haunts of the larger, game 

 the buffalo or bison to be the extreme magnet of attrac 

 tion. 



My bloodhound Druid and myself, Brutus and Alice my 

 retrievers, Chance my setter, and my deer-lurcher Bar, di 

 rectly after my visit to the mountains of Lord Breadalbane, 

 set off from Beacon Lodge on Thursday, the 18th of August, 

 1859, and reached London that evening, where we dined 



