PREFACE. 



FOR a number of years much of my life was spent 

 either in the wilderness or on the borders of the 

 settled country if, indeed, "settled" is a term 

 that can rightly be applied to the vast, scantily peopled 

 regions where cattle-ranching is the only regular industry. 

 During this time I hunted much, among the mountains 

 and on the plains, both as a pastime and to procure 

 hides, meat, and robes for use on the ranch ; and it was 

 my good luck to kill all the various kinds of large game 

 that can properly be considered to belong to temperate 

 North America. 



In hunting, the finding and killing of the game is after 

 all but a part of the whole. The free, self-reliant, adven- 

 turous life, with its rugged and stalwart democracy ; the 

 wild surroundings, the grand beauty of the scenery, the 

 chance to study the ways and habits of the woodland 

 creatures all these unite to give to the career of the wil- 

 derness hunter its peculiar charm. The chase is among 

 the best of all national pastimes ; it cultivates that vigor- 

 ous manliness for the lack of /which in a nation, as in an 

 individual, the possession of no other qualities can possibly 

 atone. 



