342 FOX-HOUXJ>, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



vigorous, healthful, life that has few drawbacks. The air is 

 then exhilarating beyond measure, the sun is only pleasant; 

 and saddle- work and corral- work alike, are for a brief while, 

 recreation rather than toil. This will not last, you know. 

 Another side of the picture conies shortly afterward — dusty 

 corrals, crushing heat, torturing thirst, alkali water (more 

 yellow and muddy day by day), swarms of flies and clouds of 

 mosquitoes, ceaseless toil and broken sleep. 



A few years ago the cry went up — and a very bitter cry 

 too — that stock-raising in the West, especially in Montana and 

 Wyoming, was " played out." So it virtually was as regards 

 growing-herds and cattle-increase. Like so many things in 

 America, it had been over-boomed and overdone. The mania 

 had developed with such intensity that the acquirement of a 

 few head of cattle was looked upon as a first safe step to 

 fortune. The prairies were soon asked to carry ten times as 

 many cattle as they could support. Two summers of drought 

 and two winters of unexampled severity stepped in to check 

 the mad delusion, and effectually put an end to it by striking 

 off nearly every cow and calf that ran at large. 



But under a different system the cattle-men — or rather cattle 

 companies, for single individuals and " little men " have per- 

 force abandoned the game that has in most cases already cost 

 them their all — the companies and new venturers again came 

 to the front, driving in accumulated herds of young steers 

 (yearlings and two-year-olds) from the Eastern and Southern 

 States to grow and fatten on the rich grasses of the prairie. 

 Should the system prove profitable, depend upon it that every 

 man in the West will want to have a finger in the golden pie — 

 till this venture too is choked by its own popularity. 



Meanwhile the Western towns — cities of the dead they might 

 almost be termed for the last few years — are looking forward to 

 a revival that, it is hoped, may be steady and permanent. The 

 bustle, the business, the activity have gone out of them ; but 

 much latent vigour and no little self-confidence remain, and 

 they await the future hopefully. True, the saloon-keepers are 



