44 The Wilderness Hunter. 



new-comer, evidently appreciating- the warmth and comfort 

 of the clean, roomy, ranch house, with its roaring fires, 

 books, and good fare, seemed inclined to make a per- 

 manent stay, according to the custom of the country. 

 My foreman, who had a large way of looking at questions 

 of foreign ethnology and geography, responded with 

 indifference: "Oh, he's a kind of a Dutchman; but he 

 hates the other Dutch, mortal. He 's from an island 

 Germany took from France in the last war ! " This 

 seemed puzzling ; but it turned out that the " island " in 

 question was Alsace. Native Americans predominate 

 among the dwellers in and on the borders of the wilder- 

 ness, and in the wild country over which the great herds 

 of the cattle-men roam ; and they take the lead in every 

 way. The sons of the Germans, Irish, and other Euro- 

 pean new-comers are usually quick to claim to be " straight 

 United States," and to disavow all kinship with the fellow- 

 countrymen of their fathers. Once, while with a hunter 

 bearing a German name, we came by chance on a German 

 hunting party from one of the eastern cities. One of 

 them remarked to my companion that he must be part 

 German himself, to which he cheerfully answered : " Well, 

 my father was a Dutchman, but my mother was a white 

 woman ! I 'm pretty white myself ! " whereat the Germans 

 glowered at him gloomily. 



As we were out of meat the Alsatian and one of the 

 cowboys and I started down the river with a wagon. The 

 first day in camp it rained hard, so that we could not hunt. 

 Towards evening we grew tired of doing nothing, and as 

 the rain had become a mere fine drizzle, we sallied out to 



