176 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



esting to me than his "African Game Trails," probably from 

 the fact that they treat of the game found, and of hunting 

 done in our own country. 



Mr. Roosevelt's style as a writer is very clear, concise, 

 direct and attractive, which, of course, tends to make his 

 books all the more readable. Besides he sticks to the facts 

 and is accurate in what he has to say. If any young friends 

 really want the best hunting stories pubHshed, they should 

 get these four volumes, or, if they cannot afiford them all, 

 get the ''Wilderness Hunter," which, to me, is the best of 

 them all. 



Once he made a trip to the Black Hills which lie two or 

 three hundred miles south of his ranch, and, although he did 

 little or no hunting there, he speaks of them in one of his 

 books as ''fairly swarming with game." He also mentions 

 one man. Col. Roger D. WilHams of Lexington, Ky., who 

 spent the entire winter of 1875 hunting in the Black Hills, 

 with his men, horses and hounds. His method was to hunt 

 on horseback, turning his greyhounds loose whenever game 

 was sighted, and racing after them with the horses. xA.c- 

 cording to the account given they got a great many wolves 

 and antelopes. Probably they could get few, if any, deer, 

 owing to the rough character of the ground, and the fre- 

 quent dense thickets where deer would be found. I can 

 readily believe from what I know of the Black Hills, that no 

 place in the United States at that date, or say up to the year 

 1890, surpassed the Black Hills region as a game country. 

 On the plateau or table-land surrounding the Hills there 

 were thousands on thousands of antelope — from the rough 

 foothills to the high timbered tracts in the interior of the 

 mountains there were thousands of black tail deer — white tail 

 deer were found everywhere in the timber and among the 

 brush thickets, at an altitude of 5000 to 6000 feet. Still higher 

 up among the rough crags of the summits of the mountains 

 there were droves of mountain sheep, while herds of elk 



