692 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



railway and the stagecoach soon sought gateways 

 into the nation's virgin pastoral possessions. Staid 

 Scotch capitalists, scions of the British aristocracy, 

 and " tenderf eet " of nearly every name and nation 

 joined in the chase the race to put cattle into every 

 nook and corner of the great big Brobdingnagian 

 West, regardless of climatic conditions or possible 

 consequences. 



In the midst of it all the new southwest was not 

 forgotten. The advantages of the lower latitudes 

 as a breeding ground were many and obvious. All 

 were ready to listen to new schemes for further de- 

 velopment in any direction. Out on the pastures of 

 New Mexico and Arizona soon the cattle found a 

 footing. Far-off Nevada escaped not the hoofs of 

 the on-coming herds, and there was always Cali- 

 fornia. The creatures of a "wild" that was fairly 

 continental in its vast expanse, stupendous in its dis- 

 tances, its heights, its depths and possibilities, gave 

 way in all directions before the grand army of the 

 occupation. The victory was only gained, however, 

 at heavy cost. The gods were at first propitious. 

 Fortune smiled alike, for a time at least, upon the 

 just and the unjust, but the inevitable happened. 

 The bubble of indefinite and unwarranted expansion 

 and improvidence burst. 'But experience teaches. 

 Better methods gradually supervened, and in the 

 meantime the hardy Hereford had been introduced 

 and cattle ranching took on a more settled character. 



