AFfER BIG-GAME IN WYOMING 193 



thought, coupled with the knowledge only gained by 

 experience, is required for a well-ordered pack-train. 

 Badly-fitting saddles and ill-balanced packs mean sore 

 backs, kicking ponies, general delay, bad language, 

 and loss of temper. In our case, nine hardy little 

 western ponies carried stores and cooking outfit, 

 baggage, spare ammunition, camp tools, and two 

 A tents ; and it took Miller and myself about a 

 month to learn the mysteries of a diamond hitch, 

 in which the ropes form a diamond on the top of 

 the pack. 



Although our men were experts, it always took two 

 hours to pack nine horses when camp was moved. 

 The first day out with our train, and within a mile 

 of the start, our nine animals were scattered in every 

 direction, bucking stores and impedimenta all over the 

 prairie with a frolicsome lightheartedness that con- 

 trasted strangely with the sober appearance of the 

 same train a month later, as, taught by experience, 

 they sedately ' followed my leader/ nose to tail, over 

 hill and dale wherever required. Once thoroughly 

 broken in to the business, a pack-train is, undoubtedly, 

 the ideal method of travelling through a rough 

 game country. Almost any country, however thickly 

 wooded or steeply mountainous, can thus be traversed 

 and the best camping-grounds chosen. On one occa- 

 sion our whole train was lost for a day in the heart 

 of the range, during a thick fog, whilst moving camp. 

 As the party were all together at the time no harm 

 happened. We camped by a convenient stream and 

 waited till the weather cleared. 



For the first week of our trip we travelled steadily 

 northwards at the rate of fifteen to twenty miles 

 a day, crossing the Rattlesnake Eange and a forty - 



13 



