n6 HUNTING TRIPS 



more or less wild life, when a man has to 

 show his skill in shifting for himself ; when, 

 for instance, he has to go out and make a 

 foray upon the grouse, neither for sport, 

 nor yet for a change of diet, but actually 

 for food. Under such circumstances he of 

 course pays no regard to the rules of sport 

 which would govern his conduct on other 

 occasions. If a man's dinner for several 

 consecutive days depends upon a single shot, 

 he is a fool if he does not take every ad- 

 vantage he can. I remember, for instance, 

 one time when we were travelling along the 

 valley of the Powder River, and got entirely 

 out of fresh meat, owing to my making a 

 succession of ludicrously bad misses at deer. 

 Having had my faith in my capacity to kill 

 any thing whatever with the rifle a good 

 deal shaken, I started off one morning on 

 horseback with the shot-gun. Until nearly 

 noon I saw nothing; then, while riding 

 through a barren-looking bottom, I hap- 

 pened to spy some prairie fowl squatting 



