THE ROUND-UP 



47 



never been broken. One of the two horses mentioned in a former chap- 

 ter as having been gone eighteen months has, since his return* been sug- 

 gestively dubbed " Dynamite Jimmy," on account of the incessant and erup- 

 tive energy with which he bucks. Many of our horses, by the way, are 

 thus named from some feat or peculiarity. Wire Fence, when being broken, 

 ran into one of the abominations after which he is now called ; Hacka- 

 more once got away and remained out for three weeks with a hackamore, 

 or breaking-halter, on him ; Macaulay contracted the habit of regularly 

 getting rid of the huge Scotchman to whom he was intrusted ; Bulberry 

 Johnny spent the hour or two after he was first mounted in a large patch 

 of thorny bulberry bushes, his distracted rider unable to get him to do any- 

 thing but move round sidewise in a circle ; Fall Back would never get to 

 the front ; Water Skip always jumps mud-puddles ; and there are a dozen 

 others with names as purely descriptive. 



The stock-growers of Montana, of the western part of Dakota, and 

 even of portions of extreme northern Wyoming, that is, of all the grazing 

 lands lying in the basin of the Upper Missouri, have united, and formed 

 themselves into the great Montana Stock-growers' Association. Among 

 the countless benefits they have derived from this course, not the least has 

 been the way in which the various round-ups work in with and supple- 

 ment one another. At the spring meeting of the association, the entire 

 territory mentioned above, including perhaps a hundred thousand square 

 miles, is mapped out into round-up districts, which generally are changed 

 but slightly from year to year, and the times and places for the round-ups to 

 begin refixed so that those of adjacent districts may be run with a view to 

 the best interests of all. Thus the stockmen along the Yellowstone have 

 one round-up ; we along the Little Missouri have another ; and the 

 country lying between, through which the Big Beaver flows, is almost 

 equally important to both. Accordingly, one spring, the Little Missouri 

 round-up, beginning May 25, and working down-stream, was timed so as 

 to reach the mouth of the Big Beaver about June i, the Yellowstone round- 

 up beginning at that date and place. Both then worked up the Beaver 

 together to its head, when the Yellowstone men turned to the west and 

 we bent back to our own river ; thus the bulk of the strayed cattle of 

 each were brought back to their respective ranges. Our own round-up 

 district covers the Big and Little Beaver creeks, which rise near each 

 other, but empty into the Little Missouri nearly a hundred and fifty miles 

 apart, and so much of the latter river as lies between their mouths. 



The captain or foreman of the round-up, upon whom very much of its 

 efficiency and success depends, is chosen beforehand. He is, of course, 



