HOESES STAMPEDED. 327 



sixty feet of rope, and all the grass near camp is soon eaten off, 

 consequently some of our horses had to be picketed a quarter 

 of a mile away. 



One night, after we had turned in, we heard horses galloping, 

 and then a number of them went by the tent at full speed. I 

 jumped out of bed, caught up my rifle, and was away after 

 them in a moment, forgetting that I had nothing on but a 

 shirt, and shouted to the men to follow me. I ran some way 

 down the valley, crouching now and then, but could see 

 nothing as it was very dark ; so, after going about a quarter of 

 a mile, I turned back, meeting the men on the way. We 

 talked the matter over and decided that they had been 

 stampeded by some animal, as, had it been Indians, we should 

 have heard them, and in any case nothing could be done till 

 morning, so we returned to the tents, my feet being a good 

 deal cut by the rough ground and my legs by the thorns. On 

 going into the tent I found the Colonel in bed, his idea being 

 that, as they were gone, it was too late to do anything. In the 

 morning we found that all had gone but the Colonel's pony, 

 which he had happened to picket away from the others in a 

 small side valley. We trailed up the others, and found them 

 all tied in the brush about four miles from camp. They had 

 galloped some miles, and had then begun to feed, soon tying 

 the sixty feet of rope, which each had fastened to his headstall, 

 round the bushes. 



We had, a few days later, an opportunity of seeing how it 

 originated, and found that it was all owing to my grey horse, 

 which had evidently been brought up in a bad school. He 

 would walk up to his picket-pin, shake the rope which was 

 round his neck as low as possible, and then, putting down his 



