OF A RANCHMAN 137 



let me come within a hundred yards of them; 

 so I turned back, climbed down into the can- 

 yon, and walked homeward through it, pick- 

 ing up nine birds on the way, the result of 

 a little over an hour's shooting. Most of 

 them were dead outright; and the two or 

 three who had been only wounded were easily 

 followed by the tracks they made in the tell- 

 tale snow. 



Most of the prairie fowl I have killed, 

 ver, have not been obtained in the 

 course of a day or an afternoon regularly 

 spent after them for the sake of the sport, 

 but have simply been shot with whatever 

 weapon came handy, because we actually 

 needed them for immediate use. On more 

 than one occasion I would have gone sup- 

 perless or dinnerless had it not been for 

 some of these grouse; and one such in- 

 stance I will give. 



One November, about the middle of the 

 month, we had driven in a beef herd (which 

 we wished to ship to the cattle yards), 

 round the old cantonment building, in 



