OF SHOOTING AND FISHING 183 
lars each procured from him licenses permitting us 
to shoot in Wyoming, provided we were accompa- 
nied by licensed guides. 
Our start had been arranged to take place at 
daybreak, so we were called early for breakfast 
on October 7 and then waited for our man; he 
came not. In an hour we went to look him up and 
found him breakfasting at the other hotel, when 
he informed us that the roads were still too slippery 
and that we must put off our departure for an- 
other day. We then assured him in very forcible 
language that we would either leave by the after- 
“noon train or start for the mountains. Fearing 
we might keep our threat, he turned up about noon 
and mounting our foot-sore and weary ponies, we 
started north. The country around Opal is rolling 
and sagebrush-grown as far as La Barge. Even 
the sagebrush has been greatly destroyed by the 
sheep. These animals graze there in herds of about 
three thousand, and after they have passed over 
a section of country there is little left, as their 
feet finish what their teeth miss. At La Barge 
the cattle men have established a dead-line, and 
woe betide the herder or the herd found north of 
it. 
Jackson told us there would be no game of any 
kind until after we passed Piney, seventy-five miles 
away, so we rode along ahead of the outfit for 
five or six miles, over a road that was neither 
very slippery nor very heavy. C. used a 30-30 
Savage rifle, and I had a 30-40 Winchester. We 
had procured some light ammunition for these, 
