xxiv THE WAPITI 381 



beyond a walk. As to digging the unarmed heels of riding-boots 

 into his flanks, or thrashing him with a stick, you might as well 

 bestride a garden roller and dig your heels into the iron; you 

 could not discover the stick that would affect him for more than a 

 few seconds, neither could you "belabour" the animal without 

 cessation. 



The day that I forgot my spurs, we were riding along a 

 valley ; the left slope was wooded with spruce forest, the right 

 was open grass. We suddenly observed a number of antelopes 

 scouring down from the sky-line on our right, about 600 yards 

 distant ; these had evidently been disturbed, and as there were no 

 hunters within many miles of our position, we could not conceive 

 the cause. Presently, three large bears appeared, cantering along 

 at a great pace down the grass slope, making all haste to reach 

 the forest on our left. As they would cross our path, we had 

 every chance of intercepting them by a quick gallop straight ahead 

 along the bottom of the valley. Buckskin took a different view 

 of the position : he knew that I had no spurs, and in spite of 

 every exertion on my part, I could not induce him to increase his 

 pace from an ordinary walk. I jumped off, and ran as hard as I 

 could go, but as we were about 10,500 feet above the sea-level, I 

 was soon out of breath. The bears did not appear to suffer from 

 short wind, as they reached the forest before I could cut off their 

 retreat. My man unfortunately rode a mule upon that occasion, 

 therefore we lost our chance. Mine was a really clever horse ; as 

 a rule, I think a horse is next door to a lunatic ; but Buckskin 

 with spurs was as different from Buckskin without spurs as a 

 steam-engine would be with or without fuel. Although I liked 

 this animal, because he carried me up and down hills without fail, 

 I did not actually love him, because I knew that my spurs were 

 my true allies, and that I could no more progress without them 

 than a steamer without her screw propeller. Horses are contra- 

 dictory creatures ; some occasionally exhibit intelligence, especially 

 when they are offered a feed of corn, and they do not refuse it, but 

 they decidedly fail as examples of evolution ; they have been the 

 companions of mankind ever since the days of the creation, and 

 they are no more civilised in the nineteenth century than when 

 Noah took them into his ark. 



There was a member of Parliament a few years ago (he was 

 not the leader of the House of Commons) who thus defined the 

 horse, in some debate upon Army Estimates, where cavalry 

 remounts were concerned "I have but little sympathy with the 

 horse ; I only know that it is an animal that bites you with one 



