206 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



he can carry about anything he chooses, including a tent, 

 any amount of bedding, and if it is very cold, a small, 

 portable stove, not to speak of elaborate cooking ap- 

 paratus. If he goes with a pack-train, he will also be 

 able to carry a good deal ; but in such a case he must rely 

 on the judgment of the trained packers, unless he is him- 

 self an expert in the diamond hitch. If it becomes nec- 

 essary to go on foot for any length of time, he must be 

 prepared to do genuine roughing, and must get along 

 with the minimum of absolute necessities. 



It is hardly necessary to point out that the hunter 

 worthy of the name should be prepared to shift for him- 

 self in emergencies. A ranchman, or any other man 

 whose business takes him much in the mountains and out 

 on the great plains or among the forests, ought to be 

 able to get along entirely on his own account. But this 

 cannot usually be done by those whose existence is habit- 

 ually more artificial. When a man who normally lives 

 a rather over-civilized life, an over-luxurious life espe- 

 cially in the great cities gets off for a few weeks' hunt- 

 ing, he cannot expect to accomplish much in the way of 

 getting game without calling upon the services of a 

 trained guide, woodsman, plainsman, or mountain man, 

 whose life-work it has been to make himself an adept 

 in all the craft of the wilderness. Until a man unused to 

 wilderness life, even though a good sportsman, has act- 

 ually tried it, he has no idea of the difficulties and hard- 

 ships of shifting absolutely for himself, even for only two 

 or three days. Not only will the local guide have the 

 necessary knowledge as to precisely which one of two 



