IN THE FAR WEST. 137 



that its full powers of speed have not been fully developed, 

 and its wind is not good, if driven hard by swift-footed fox- 

 hounds, for more than two or three hours. I have myself, 

 when mounted on a good horse, overtaken it in a run of fifteen 

 or twenty minutes, but I must say that the pace was killing 

 on my steed, and that I plied the whip occasionally. 



One of my greatest amusements in a certain portion 

 of California was to mount a horse and ride after coyotes 

 until I lost or captured them. This horse, which was 

 a great favourite of mine, although he would buck like 

 a bounding rubber ball occasionally, and shy without the 

 least cause every few minutes and when I did not expect 

 it, was a capital jumper an unusual thing for an untrained 

 horse in the West and could run ten or fifteen miles at a 

 slashing gait without showing much suffering. When I 

 hunted coyotes I generally had one or two dogs with me, but 

 I frequently went without them, as the quarries were so 

 numerous that they were liable to start up at any moment near 

 my feet. At the first view I would dash after them, and force 

 them to their best pace for fifteen or twenty minutes, and I 

 found that this soon produced its effect, and that I might 

 expect to capture them at any moment if they did not escape 

 me in the chapparel. When I drew alongside I let them have 

 the contents of a large revolver, but I sometimes secured one 

 by striking it on the head with a club or " waddy," or by 

 lassoing it with a raw-hide lariat. 



It may perhaps be needless to state that I lost many more 

 than I caught, unless I was accompanied by the dogs, and 

 even then I might say that I could count more escapes 

 than captures. The only way to be sure of it is to use a grey- 

 hound, for that light-footed creature will soon bring it to bay, 

 and enable the pack of hounds, or other dogs, to come up with 

 it. If a person is well up in the run on such occasions he will 

 see a pretty bit of a scramble, for the coyote, when it sees no 

 means of escape, will, like the traditional worm, turn on its 

 foes, and use its sharp teeth to good advantage. A capital 

 dog for hunting it would be a cross between the fox-hound 

 and deerhound, or the fox-hound and the German v.Uiiierhi'iiil, 



