^6 RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



overwrought fear of shedding blood. He possesses, in fact, few of the 

 emasculated, milk-and-water moralities admired by the pseudo-philan- 

 thropists ; but he does possess, to a very high degree, the stern, manly 

 qualities that are invaluable to a nation. 



The method of work is simple. The mess-wagons and loose horses, 

 after breaking camp in the morning, move on in a straight line for some 

 few miles, going into camp again before midday ; and the day herd, con- 

 sisting of all the cattle that have been found far off their range, and which 

 are to be brought back there, and of any others that it is necessary to 

 gather, follows on afterwards. Meanwhile the cowboys scatter out and 

 drive in all the cattle from the country round about, going perhaps ten or 

 fifteen miles back from the line of march, and meeting at the place where 

 camp has already been pitched. The wagons always keep some little dis- 

 tance from one another, and the saddle-bands do the same, so that the 

 horses may not get mixed. It is rather picturesque to see the four-horse 

 teams filing down at a trot through a pass among the buttes — the sad- 

 dle-bands being driven along at a smart pace to one side or behind, the 

 teamsters cracking their whips, and the horse-wranglers calling and shout- 

 ing as they ride rapidly from side to side behind the horses, urging on the 

 stragglers by dexterous touches with the knotted ends of their long lariats 

 that are left trailing from the saddle. The country driven over is very 

 rough, and it is often necessary to double up teams and put on eight horses 

 to each wagon in going up an unusually steep pitch, or hauling through a 

 deep mud-hole, or over a river crossing where there is quicksand. 



The speed and thoroughness with which a country can be worked 

 depends, of course, very largely upon the number of riders. Ours is prob- 

 ably about an average round-up as regards size. The last spring I was 

 out, there were half a dozen wagons along ; the saddle-bands numbered 

 about a hundred each ; and the morning we started, sixty men in the 

 saddle splashed across the shallow ford of the river that divided the plain 

 where we had camped from the valley of the long winding creek up which 

 we were first to work. 



In the morning the cook is preparing breakfast long before the first 

 glimmer of dawn. As soon as it is ready, probably about 3 o'clock, he 

 utters a long-drawn shout, and all the sleepers feel it is time to be up on 

 the instant, for they know there can be no such thing as delay on the 

 round-up, under penalty of being set afoot. Accordingly, they bundle out, 

 rubbing their eyes and yawning, draw on their boots and trousers, — if 

 they have taken the latter off, — roll up and cord their bedding, and usually 

 without any attempt at washing crowd over to the little smoldering fire, 



