22 The Wilderness Hunter. 



the open gate, which was promptly closed by the cowboy 

 who had driven them in. 



After breakfast we strolled over to the corral, with our 

 lariats, and, standing by the snubbing-post in the middle, 

 roped the horses we wished for the party some that 

 were gentle, and others that were not. Then every man 

 saddled his horse ; and at the moment of mounting for 

 the start there was, as always, a thrill of mild excitement, 

 each rider hoping that his own horse would not buck, 

 and that his neighbor's would. I had no young horses 

 on the ranch at the time ; but a number of the older 

 ones still possessed some of the least amiable traits of 

 their youth. 



Once in the saddle we rode off down river, along the 

 bottoms, crossing the stream again and again. We went 

 in Indian file, as is necessary among the trees and in 

 broken ground, following the cattle-trails which them- 

 selves had replaced or broadened the game paths that 

 alone crossed the plateaus and bottoms when my ranch 

 house was first built. Now we crossed open reaches of 

 coarse grass, thinly sprinkled with large, brittle cotton- 

 wood trees, their branches torn and splintered ; now we 

 wound our way through a dense jungle where the gray, 

 thorny buffalo bushes, spangled with brilliant red berry 

 clusters, choked the spaces between the thick-growing box- 

 alders ; and again the sure-footed ponies scrambled down 

 one cut bank and up another, through seemingly im- 

 possible rifts, or with gingerly footsteps trod a path which 

 cut the side of a butte or overhung a bluff. Sometimes 

 we racked, or shacked along at the fox trot which is the 



