196 HUNTING TRIPS 



render it nearly useless to try to kill them 

 in this way, as the horse would be sure to 

 alarm them 6y making a noise, and even if 

 he did not there would hardly be time to 

 dismount and take a snap shot. Only once 

 have I ever killed a white-tail buck while 

 hunting on horseback; and at that time I 

 had been expecting to fall in with black- 

 tail. 



This was while we had been making a 

 wagon trip to the westward following the 

 old Keogh trail, which was made by the 

 heavy army wagons that journeyed to Fort 

 Keogh in the old days when the soldiers 

 were, except a few daring trappers, the only 

 white men to be seen on the last great hunt- 

 ing-ground of the Indians. It was aban- 

 doned as a military route several years ago, 

 and is now only rarely travelled over, either 

 by the canvas-topped ranch-wagon of some 

 wandering cattle-men like ourselves, or 

 else by a small party of emigrants, in two 

 or three prairie schooners, which contain all 

 their household goods. Nevertheless, it is 



