4 RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



could be driven in fall to their sheltered winter range for the cattle in 

 winter eat snow, and an entirely waterless region, if broken, and with 

 good pasturage, is often the best possible winter ground, as it is sure not 

 to have been eaten off at all during the summer ; while in the bottoms the 

 grass is always cropped down soonest. Many outfits regularly shift their 

 herds every spring and fall ; but with us in the Bad Lands all we do, when 

 cold weather sets in, is to drive our beasts off the scantily grassed river- 

 bottom back ten miles or more among the broken buttes and plateaus of 

 the uplands to where the brown hay, cured on the stalk, stands thick in the 

 winding coulees. 



These lookouts or forerunners having returned, the herds are set in 

 motion as early in the spring as may be, so as to get on the ground in 

 time to let the travel-worn beasts rest and gain flesh before winter sets in. 

 Each herd is accompanied by a dozen, or a score, or a couple of score, of 

 cowboys, according to its size, and beside it rumble and jolt the heavy 

 four-horse wagons that hold the food and bedding of the men and the few 

 implements they will need at the end of their journey. As long as possi- 

 ble they follow the trails made by the herds that have already traveled in 

 the same direction, and when these end they strike out for themselves. 

 In the Upper Missouri basin, the pioneer herds soon had to scatter out 

 and each find its own way among the great dreary solitudes, creeping 

 carefully along so that the cattle should not be overdriven and should have 

 water at the halting-places. An outfit might thus be months on its lonely 

 journey, slowly making its way over melancholy, pathless plains, or down 

 the valleys of the lonely rivers. It was tedious, harassing work, as the 

 weary cattle had to be driven carefully and quietly during the day and 

 strictly guarded at night, with a perpetual watch kept for Indians or white 

 horse-thieves. Often they would skirt the edges of the streams for days 

 at a time, seeking for a ford or a good swimming crossing, and if the 

 water was up and the quicksand deep the danger to the riders was serious 

 and the risk of loss among the cattle very great. 



At last, after days of excitement and danger and after months of weary, 

 monotonous toil, the chosen ground is reached and the final camp pitched. 

 The footsore animals are turned loose to shift for themselves, outlying 

 camps of two or three men each being established to hem them in. 

 Meanwhile the primitive ranch-house, out-buildings, and corrals are built, 

 the unhewn cottonwood logs being chinked with moss and mud, while the 

 roofs are of branches covered with dirt, spades and axes being the only 

 tools needed for the work. Bunks, chairs, and tables are all home-made, 

 and as rough as the houses they are in. The supplies of coarse, rude food 



