198 HUNTING TRIPS 



is, of course, kept in mind, and it can be 

 reached whether the sun is down or not; 

 then a glance tells if the wagon has passed, 

 and all that remains to be done is to gallop 

 along the trail until camp is found. 



On the trip in question we had at first 

 very bad weather. Leaving the ranch in 

 the morning, two of us, who were mounted, 

 pushed on ahead to hunt, the wagon follow- 

 ing slowly, with a couple of spare saddle 

 ponies leading behind it. Early in the af- 

 ternoon, while riding over the crest of a 

 great divide, which separates the drainage 

 basins of two important creeks, we saw that 

 a tremendous storm was brewing with that 

 marvellous rapidity which is so marked a 

 characteristic of weather changes on the 

 plains. A towering mass of clouds gath- 

 ered in the northwest, turning that whole 

 quarter of the sky to an inky blackness. 

 From there the storm rolled down toward 

 us at a furious speed, obscuring by degrees 

 the light of the sun, and extending its 

 wings toward each side, as if to overlap any 



