162 A CARNIVOROUS HORSE. 



the fort. Shortly before our arrival, a soldier was continually 

 coming to the ranche courting one of Martin's daughters ; he 

 was told that he was not wanted, but still came whenever he 

 could get away, so at last Martin lost patience, and seized him 

 by the collar and threw him out of the door, when he took the 

 hint and had not been since. 



We left the ranche about the beginning of August, and 

 struck up the Republican River, but found nothing but old 

 buffalo bulls, the Indians having driven all the cows and calves 

 south ; the water of the river, too, was very bad, as it was 

 almost like liquid mud ; there were some beautiful ice-cold 

 springs about, but the Indians having camped near them 

 so often, there was no grass left, and the only game was 

 turkeys, so our sporting experiences are not worth recording. 



During my absence, F had bought a horse from some 



professional hunters, which was the only one I ever saw which 

 would eat meat. His former owners had spent the last winter 

 in trapping on the Republican, and had been burned out by the 

 Sioux, and all their horses died but this one, which had taken 

 to eating any scraps of meat he found lying round camp and to 

 gnawing the bones. He would still eat a little if he came across 

 it, though it had by no means agreed with him, as his coat had 

 nearly all come off and never regrown, except in patches. 



We remained till the beginning of September, and then 

 returned to St. Joe, having decided on wintering in Texas, then 

 a wonderful country for game. We sold off everything but 

 Polly, as I intended to take her with me, and we bought a 

 number of dogs, chiefly pointers and setters, as we hoped to 

 find a great deal of small game where we were going. We 

 engaged an old Welshman to look after these on the way down 



