284 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



a good foreman or two, to brand calves in the spring 

 and collect beef cattle in the fall, with a highly-paid 

 and responsible ranch-manager to handle the cash, do 

 the writing, and generally to run the show, and there 

 you were. 



It was an attractive commercial idea that worked 

 out beautifully on paper, but somehow or other, and 

 generally speaking, did not turn out quite so re- 

 munerative in actual practice. It was extraordinary 

 hoAV herds of range cattle, bought often on book- 

 count, melted away in the course of a few years 

 from off the wild unfenced prairies and foot-hills of 

 Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Severe winters, 

 deep snows, and January blizzards with the ther- 

 mometer c 30 below,' were bound to tell their tale, and 

 to exact their full tribute, particularly with young 

 cattle hustled on to the higher mountain-ranges of 

 the States above mentioned, possibly late in the 

 autumn, and after long drives from milder, lower- 

 lying States and Territories. 



But this does not purport to be a treatise on 

 American cattle-ranching of twenty years ago. For 

 the purpose of my tale, however, and for a proper 

 understanding of the characters and circumstances 

 with which it deals, a slight preliminary acquaintance 

 with the outlines of western cattle -ranching as then 

 carried on is advisable. 



Paper herds of cattle and severe winters were 

 sufficient, then, in their way to account here and 

 there, and to some extent, for the disappearance of 

 good English dollars that have jumped into western 

 pockets and have since given little or no return. 

 But there was another and more occult reason let us 

 call it why the yearly records of spring and autumn 



