130 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



controlled, almost human seems the plainsman's 

 horse ! 



I share all the tenderfoot's admiration for the 

 cowboy and his " pony." Both of them are neces- 

 sary in bringing a herd of four thousand cattle 

 through from P Ranch to Winnemucca ; and of 

 both is required a degree of daring and endur- 

 ance, as well as a knowledge of the wild animal 

 mind, that lifts their hard work into the heroic, 

 and makes of every drive a sagebrush epic so 

 wonderful is the working together of man and 

 horse, the centaur come back ! So free and effect- 

 ive the body directed by the human intelligence 

 that fills and rules it like a soul. 



From P Ranch to Winnemucca is a seventeen- 

 day drive through a desert of rim rock and grease- 

 wood and sage, that, under the most favorable of 

 conditions, is beset with difficulty, but which in 

 the dry season, and with a herd even approach- 

 ing four thousand, becomes an unbroken hazard. 

 More than anything else on such a drive is feared 

 the wild herd-spirit, the quick, black temper of 

 the cattle, that, by one sign or another, ever 

 threatens to break the spell of the riders' power 

 and sweep the maddened or terrorized beasts to 



