ON A CATTLE-RANGE 299 



pede threatened for a time to undo the labour of 

 weeks, and to scatter far and wide over our mountain 

 range the three or four hundred fat oxen we had 

 so laboriously gathered. 



But I must first recount a hunting episode which 

 was the prelude to this particular stampede. During 

 the work of the round-up I occasionally took an 

 afternoon off. The boys liked fresh venison, which 

 formed an agreeable change to range beef. In the 

 course of about ten days' cattle-gathering we had 

 gradually worked out to the more outlying portion 

 of our range, near the Rim of the Hole, as it was 

 called the Hole being a peculiar depression many 

 miles in diameter, of volcanic formation, the edge 

 or rim of which was a steep hillside, some 500 feet in 

 height, here and there thickly timbered. It was a 

 favourite resort for wapiti and deer as well as bear, as 

 the numerous well-defined game-paths along its steep 

 sides clearly showed. 



One fine September afternoon I rode out alone 

 along its upper edge, every now and then peering 

 over into the hollows and steep gulches and miniature 

 canons below, on the look-out for game. I was 

 a mile or more from camp, when I discovered, to my 

 disgust, that I had only four cartridges in my pocket. 

 For some time nothing but antelope were visible, 

 roaming here and there in small bands on the rolling 

 upland prairies that stretched away on my right hand 

 to the distant peaks of the Medicine Bow Range. 

 These wary animals always afforded good sport as 

 well as excellent venison ; so presently, seeing no 

 sign of elk, I rode up a prairie hollow away from 

 the Rim, in order to get a long shot at what appeared 

 in the distance to be a good buck antelope. 



