156 HUNTING TRIPS 



with my double-barrel lo-bore and a supply 

 of cartridges loaded with No. 4 shot; one 

 of my cowboys went with me carrying a 

 rifle so as to be ready if we ran across any 

 antelope. Our horses were fresh, and the 

 only way to find the birds was to cover as 

 much ground as possible ; so as soon as we 

 reached the plateau we loped across it in 

 parallel lines till we struck one of the 

 creeks, when we went up it, one on each 

 side, at a good gait, and then crossed over 

 to another, where we repeated the opera- 

 tion. It was nearly noon when, while going 

 up the third creek, we ran into a covey of 

 about fifteen sage fowl a much larger 

 covey than ordinary. They were down in 

 the bottom of the creek, which here ex- 

 hibited a formation very common on the 

 plains. Although now perfectly dry, every 

 series of heavy rainfalls changed it into a 

 foaming torrent, which flowed down the 

 valley in sharp curves, eating away the land 

 into perpendicular banks on the outside of 

 each curve. Thus a series of small bottoms 



