ANIMAL RENEGADES. 



179 



dred yards, the captain saw that they were pursued by 

 a troop of gray wolves, whose leader at last wheeled to 

 the left about, while the cows kept right on, and, rush 

 ing into the camp, crowded, snorting and trembling, 

 around the tethered horses. They were mostly cows 

 and yearlings, some thirty altogether; and a Hindoo 

 would probably faint to learn that the butchers " bagged" 

 about twenty of them. 



The Fronteras chaparral swarms with wild dogs, 

 and during my stay in Matamoros the captain made a 

 curious experiment with a " tramp bitch," whose puppies 

 had been captured in the neighborhood of the matanza. 

 The beef-packery is guarded at night by a dozen ugly- 

 looking mastiffs, and the tramp dogs generally give the 

 establishment an extensive berth ; but in the hard winter 

 of '76 they put in an appearance, at least in daytime, 

 when the mastiffs were chained up. They used to sit in 

 groups on the slope of a little hill near the matanza, 

 appealing to the charity of the proprietor by yelping in 

 chorus every now and then. There was so much waste 

 stuff around the place that the captain concluded to 

 grant their petition, and, by way of encouragement, sent 

 them a car-load of beef-bones and " rippings," instruct- 

 ing the driver to scatter the scraps between the hill and 

 the bone-pit. The tramps took the hint, and soon visited 

 the pit every morning, in spite of the furious protest of 

 the chain dogs. All went well for a couple of months: 

 the tramps enjoyed their bonanza discreetly, and the 



