318 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



goods, and alcoholic drinks, especially whisky. Its 

 altitude in inverse ratio to its morals and temper- 

 ance is about 6,000 feet above the sea, and a gale of 

 wind, with clouds of dust, is always blowing through 

 its streets. Caspar's main industry and source of 

 revenue is the stock business, and its leading aris- 

 tocracy consists of lawyers, small settlers, cattle and 

 sheep men and their ' boys.' As a natural sequence, 

 in the administration of Caspar justice cases involving 

 disputed ownership of live-stock play a leading part. 



In 1893 I had again visited our Wyoming cattle- 

 ranch, and had also managed, as a minor detail, to 

 do a little hunting on my own account in the Grand 

 Encampment district in the intervals of business. 



Hearing that Boney Earnest, one of our former 

 ranch managers, was in some legal cattle scrape, and 

 that the case was about to be tried in Caspar, I took 

 the opportunity just before my departure for New 

 York of paying this place a visit, in company with 

 James Cowan, the then English manager of our 

 cattle business. As a further inducement, our cattle 

 company was then interested in a herd of sheep that 

 were ranging near Caspar, and it became convenient 

 to take the opportunity of inspecting them. 



A day was occupied in travelling by rail via 

 Cheyenne to Caspar, where we found that the pending 

 trial was arousing great local interest, partly on account 

 of the individuality of the parties concerned, and partly 

 also from the special circumstances of the case. 



In order to understand and appreciate these special 

 features, some preliminary explanation is necessary. 

 Caspar and vicinity held views of its own regarding 

 the ownership of cattle. Its enemies went so far as 

 to call Caspar as it then was a den of cattle-thieves. 



