35 The Wilderness Hunter. 



ing of the calves was done ordinarily in one of these 

 corrals and on foot, the calf being always roped by both 

 forelegs ; otherwise the work of the cowpunchers was 

 much like that of their brothers in the North. As a 

 whole, however, they were distinctly more proficient with 

 the rope, and at least half of them were Mexicans. 



There were some bands of wild cattle living only in 

 the densest timber of the river bottoms which were liter- 

 ally as wild as deer, and moreover very fierce and dan- 

 gerous. The pursuit of these was exciting and hazardous 

 in the extreme. The men who took part in it showed not 

 only the utmost daring but the most consummate horse- 

 manship and wonderful skill in the use of the rope, the 

 coil being hurled with the force and precision of an iron 

 quoit ; a single man speedily overtaking, roping, throwing, 

 and binding down the fiercest steer or bull. 



There had been many peccaries, or, as the Mexicans 

 and cowpunchers of the border usually call them, javalinas, 

 round this ranch a few years before the date of my visit. 

 Until 1886, or thereabouts, these little wild hogs were 

 not much molested, and abounded in the dense chaparral 

 around the lower Rio Grande. In that year, however, it 

 was suddenly discovered that their hides had a market 

 value, being worth four bits that is, half a dollar apiece ; 

 and many Mexicans and not a few shiftless Texans went 

 into the business of hunting them as a means of livelihood. 

 They were more easily killed than deer, and, as a result, 

 they were speedily exterminated in many localities where 

 they had formerly been numerous, and even where they 

 were left were to be found only in greatly diminished 



