ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND WESTERN CATTLE LAND. 135 



a pleasant enough fellow in camp, and an admirer of 

 my Express, or " English, cannon," as he called it, 

 which " would shoot through a mountain and kill on 

 the other side ; " and one evening, when he said he 

 "wasl)roke completely up," having got entangled in 

 the lasso with which he had ' roped ' a vicious ' bron- 

 cho ' in the c correl,' I was able to patch him up again 

 with opium liniment. This horse-breaking (called in 

 the vernacular c broncho busting ') is often rough 

 work. In the presence of Missouri John's horses our 

 own half-dozen had to be kept hobbled or picketed. 

 The boss left in his buggy the next day. His two 

 4 boys ' usually ' correlled ' the herd every morning, 

 and some were invariably missing, and had to be 

 hunted up. Indeed, the Westerner, whether he be in 

 the stock 01 horse-ranche business, is for ever having 

 to hunt up strayed horses. 



He also invariably is, or assumes to be, ignorant of 

 the exact number of horses he possesses, even when 

 none are supposed to be missing. 



But Broncho Bill, whom the King had engaged as 

 hunter, had not yet found us. Any one who is ' liable ' 

 not to be able to find his way back to camp among the 

 confusing hills and forests or on the plains where 

 there are no prominent landmarks, usually engages a 

 1 hunter,' to whom he often has to pay six dollars a 

 day. The hunter's duties consist in ' riding around ' 

 to 'show the country,' and in always knowing the 

 shortest way back to camp. One day I rode up on to a 

 broad table-land overlooking Bates's Hole, to ' snake ' 



