THE WILDERNESS 55 



twenty miles south of Zacatecas in Mexico, 

 which is the southern boundary of the Stock 

 Range, on the Tropic of Cancer. I have also 

 ridden from Regina in Saskatchewan to Red 

 Bluff in California. These two routes cross the 

 grass from north to south, and nearly from 

 east to west, making a rough total of seven 

 thousand miles. 



The land as I knew it first had just been 

 stripped naked by the hunters who swept 

 away almost the whole of its native stock of 

 bison, deer, and antelope, wild sheep and 

 goats, together with the hunting animals, such 

 as wolves and panthers who earned a living 

 there. The land as I saw it next was over- 

 stocked with ponies, cattle and sheep, so that 

 the grass was poor. The land as I saw it last 

 was being fenced, watered and ploughed by 

 pioneer settlers. In thirty years I witnessed 

 the passing of the wilderness and its frontiers- 

 men. 



A meadow gives a totally false idea of the 

 herbage which built up the strength and 

 vigour of the ancient pony herds. It is a 

 mixture of many grasses and other plants all 

 closely turfed together so that a horse cannot 

 readily select what he likes best. The grass 

 contains a deal of water, stays green throughout 



