AMONG THE HIGH HILLS. 



123 



trained muscles, can successfully hunt him in 

 his own rugged fastnesses. The chase of no 

 other kind of American big game ranks higher, 

 or more thoroughly tests the manliest qualties 

 of the hunter. 



I walked back to camp in the gloaming, tak- 

 ing care to reach it before it grew really dark; 

 for in the Bad Lands it is entirely impossible 

 to travel, or to find any given locality, after 

 nightfall. Old Manitou had eaten his fill 

 and looked up at me with pricked ears, and 

 wise, friendly face as I climbed down the side 

 of the cedar canyon ; then he came slowly 

 towards me to see if I had not something for 

 him. I rubbed his soft nose and gave him a 

 cracker ; then I picketed him to a solitary 

 cedar, where the feed was good. Afterwards 

 I kindled a* small fire, roasted both prairie 

 fowl, ate one, and put the other by for break- 

 fast ; and soon rolled myself in my blanket, 

 with the saddle for a pillow, and the oilskin 

 beneath. Manitou was munching the grass 

 nearby. I lay just outside the line of stiff 

 black cedars ; the night air was soft in my 

 face ; I gazed at the shining and brilliant 

 multitude of stars until my eyelids closed. 



The chill breath which comes before dawn 

 awakened me. It was still and dark. Through 

 the gloom I could indistinctly make out the 

 loom of the old horse, lying down. I was 

 speedily ready, and groped and stumbled 

 slowly up the hill, and then along its crest to 

 a peak. Here I sat down and waited a 

 quarter of an hour or so, until gray appeared 

 in the east, and the dim light-streaks enabled 

 me to walk farther. Before sunrise I was 



