Ii8 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



CHAPTER VI. 



AMONG THE HIGH HILLS ; THE BIGHORN OR 

 MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 



DURING the summer of 1886 I hunted 

 chiefly to keep the ranch in meat. It was 

 a very pleasant summer ; although it was fol- 

 lowed by the worst winter we ever witnessed on 

 the plains. I was much at the ranch, where I 

 had a good deal of writing to do ; but every 

 week or two I left, to ride among the line 

 camps, or spend a few days on any round-up 

 which happened to be in the neighborhood. 



These days of vigorous work among the 

 cattle were themselves full of pleasure. At 

 dawn we were in the saddle, the morning air 

 cool in our faces ; the red sunrise saw us 

 loping across the grassy reaches of prairie 

 land, or climbing in single file among the 

 rugged buttes. All forenoon we spent riding 

 the long circle with the cow-punchers of the 

 round-up ; in the afternoon we worked the 

 herd, cutting the cattle, with much breakneck 

 galloping and dextrous halting and wheeling. 

 Then came the excitement and hard labor of 

 roping, throwing, and branding the wild and 

 vigorous range calves ; in a corral, if one was 

 handy, otherwise in a ring of horsemen. 

 Soon after nightfall we lay down, in a log hut 



