TRAVEL. 65 



with troops become important. The most valuable ser- 

 vices rendered by guides is in conducting waggon trains. 



Some few of these men have a wonderful capacity, 

 almost an instinct, for finding road, and, though in a 

 country entirely unknown to them, can tell almost with 

 certainty by the ' lay of the land ' where the best route 

 can be found. 



A man possessed of a certain amount of travelling 

 instinct is very apt, after trusting to it for some time 

 without accident or difficulty, to fancy that it is all that 

 is necessary in plains-craft, and tacitly to ignore his com- 

 pass. The veriest greenhorn is less liable to mishap than 

 he. He neglects the habit of, I may say, wearing his 

 compass, and some time or other gets caught in a dilemma 

 from which he must extricate himself by extraordinary 

 means, or suffer greatly. I speak from ample experience, 

 having gotten into numerous scrapes through too much 

 confidence in my ' instinct.' I have already related one 

 of these. I will give one more before leaving a subject 

 of the utmost importance to all who travel on the plains. 



I was out with a scouting party. Near the Two 

 Buttes we were snowed up, and were obliged to remain 

 in camp on Two Buttes Creek. One morning gave pro- 

 mise of clearing weather, and, taking with me two men, 

 I went out to get some fresh meat. The country is the 

 high table land of the second plain, through which the 

 Two Buttes Creek cuts its way in a narrow and deep gorge. 

 The Two Buttes, a detached portion of the first plain, is 

 a single hill of about 500 feet above the plain, the top 

 of which is broken away in the middle, leaving two 

 almost conical flat-topped peaks, more than 300 feet apart 

 at the summits, and each rising probably 200 feet above 

 their common base. 



It is a very prominent and well-known landmark, and 

 can be seen under favourable conditions for more than 

 sixty miles. The country is an alternation of nearly level 

 plain and very broken ground, and would be easy to get 



