HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 169 



some twelve miles from my ranch, but when we reache4 

 it we found it dry and went on without halting. Early 

 in the afternoon we came out on the broad, tree-clad bot- 

 tom on which the ranch house stands, and, threading our 

 way along the cattle trails soon drew up in front of the 

 gray empty buildings. 



Just as we were leaving the hunting-grounds on this 

 trip, after having killed all the game we felt we had a 

 right to kill, we encountered bands of Sioux Indians from 

 the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River reservations com- 

 ing in to hunt, and I at once felt that the chances for much 

 future sport in that particular district were small. Ind- 

 ians are not good shots, but they hunt in large numbers, 

 killing everything, does, fawns and bucks alike, and they 

 follow the wounded animals with the utmost persever- 

 ance, so that they cause much destruction of game. 



Accordingly, in 1894, when I started for these same 

 grounds, it was with some misgivings ; but I had time only 

 to make a few days' hunt, and I knew of no other accessi- 

 ble grounds where prongbuck were plentiful. My fore- 

 man was with me, and, as usual, we took the ranch wagon, 

 driven this time by a cowboy who had just come up 

 over the trail with cattle from Colorado. On reaching 

 our happy hunting-grounds of the previous season, I 

 found my fears sadly verified; and one unforeseen cir- 

 cumstance, also told against me. Not only had the Ind- 

 ians made a great killing of antelope the season before, 

 but in the spring one or two sheep men had moved into 

 the country. We found that the big flocks had been mov- 



