390 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



coming of day. An early start is most important, as it goes a 

 long way towards ensuring an early camp, and that camp should 

 be made early whilst there is still plenty of daylight is of vital 

 importance to everyone with the expedition. The discomforts 

 of camping in the dark only require to be tried once to be 

 avoided for the future. 



Whilst one man lights the fire and gets the breakfast ready, 

 let another go for the horses, and a third put the beds together 

 and make the packs ready. Save time whenever you can, for 

 unavoidable delays are all too frequent with a pack train. A 

 cayuse is not as other horses are. AVhen you have sought 

 animals sorrowing, in the chill dawn, and found them hiding^ 

 in a long line one behind another with their heads down, 

 behind a bush no bigger than a respectable cabbage, or have 

 watched your bell-horse roll his bell in the sand, shake himself 

 to see if it will ring, and then trot away contented, you will 

 know more about cayuses, and agree that they are the hardiest, 

 most sure-footed, and ' meanest ' of all created beings. See 

 then that you get them together early in the day, and have the 

 packs on their backs and 'all set' within half an hour of the 

 time at which you finish your breakfast. 



When you have the ponies packed, some one of the hunters 

 may ride well ahead, but the man who 'leads out,' i.e. guides 

 the pack train, should never ride far ahead. If he does, the 

 pack animals will at once begin to stray. The best pace to 

 travel at is a fairly brisk walk ; anything more than this generally 

 disarranges the packs and necessitates halts to rearrange them, 

 or causes sore backs. From fifteen to twenty-five miles a day, 

 according to the character of the country to be ridden through, 

 is an excellent day's work for pack ponies, and from two to 

 three miles an hour a fair pace to travel at. 



Keep your temper in driving pack ponies across a side hill, 

 or along a steep and narrow trail. Pack ponies are as mean as • 

 — civilised words won't express their * meanness ' — and when a 

 pony knows that he has another between himself and the whip, 

 and that the whip cannot reach him owing to the narrowness 



