VI 

 HUNTING IN THE UNITED STATES 



From the many letters which he wrote to his wife 

 and his daughter, while he was on the plains and in 

 the Rocky Mountains, the following have been 

 selected as being those which are best suited to 

 illustrate the manner of his life out there. It must 

 be remembered, however, that they do not all relate 

 to the same expedition, but to many expeditions 

 made in different years in the seventies ; and they 

 must, therefore, be read not as though they formed 

 one more or less continuous narrative, but merely as 

 a series of disconnected fragments. 



' Fort MacPherson, 9/^ November. 



' We have had a long hunt, at least thirty days 

 in the saddle, which has brought me down as fine 

 as a stax and as strong as wire. Our hunting was 

 not so good as last year, however, as the prairie fires 

 have swept the whole country. Where then we 

 found beautiful grass and tall trees is now a black, 

 arid wilderness ; desert is not the right word for it, 



