LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 127 



dexterity, to take advantage of the best line of country to follow — 

 avoiding the gulHes and caiions and broken ground which would 

 otherwise have impeded his advance. This tact appeared instinct- 

 ive, for Jie looked neither right nor left, while continuing a course 

 as straight as possible at the foot of the mountains. In selecting 

 a camping site, he displayed equal skill : wood, water, and grass 

 began to fill his thoughts toward sundown, and when these three 

 requisites for a camping ground presented themselves, old Bill 

 sprang from his saddle, unpacked his animals in a twinkling, and 

 hobbled them, struck fire and ignited a few chips (leaving the rest 

 to pack in the wood), lit his pipe, and enjoyed himself. On one 

 occasion, when passing through the valley, they had come upon a 

 band of fine buffalo cows, and, shortly after camping, two of the party 

 rode in with a good supply of fat fleece. One of the party was a 

 " greenhorn" on his first hunt, fresh from a fort on Platte, and as 

 yet uninitiated in the mysteries of mountain cooking. Bill, lazily 

 smoking his pipe, called to him as he happened to be nearest, to 

 butcher off' a piece of meat and put it in his pot. Markhead 

 seized the fleece, and commenced innocently carving off' a hugo 

 ration, when a gasping roar from the old trapper caused him to 

 drop his knife. 



" Ti-ya," growled Bill, " do 'ee hyar, now, you darned green- 

 horn, do 'ee spile fat cow like that whar you was raised ? Them 

 doins won't shine in this crowd, boy, do 'ee hyar, darn you ? — 

 What ! butcher meat across the grain I why, whar'll the blood 

 be goin' to, you precious Spaniard? Down the grain, I say," he 

 continued, in a severe tone of rebuke, " and let your flaps be long, 

 or out the juice '11 run slick — do 'ee hyar, now ?" But this heret- 

 ical error nearly cost the old trapper his appetite, and all night 

 long he grumbled his horror at seeing " fat cow spiled in that 

 fashion." 



When two or three days' journey brought them to the end of 

 the valley, and they comm.enced the passage of the mountain, 



