AMONG THE COWBOYS 267 



known six such stops and renewed stampedes to take 

 place in one night, the cowboy staying with his ever- 

 diminishing herd of steers until daybreak, when he 

 managed to get them under control again, and by 

 careful humouring of his jaded, staggering force, finally 

 brought those that were left back to the camp, several 

 miles distant. The riding in these night stampedes is 

 wild and dangerous to a degree, especially if the man 

 gets caught in the rush of the beasts. It also fre- 

 quently necessitates an immense amount of work in 

 collecting the scattered animals. On one such occasion 

 a small party of us were thirty-six hours in the saddle, 

 dismounting only to change horses or to eat. We were 

 almost worn out at the end of the time, but it must 

 be kept in mind that for a long spell of such work 

 a stock-saddle is far less tiring than the ordinary 

 Eastern or English one, and in every way superior 

 to it. 



By very hard riding such a stampede may some- 

 times be prevented. Once we were bringing a thou- 

 sand head of young cattle down to my lower ranch, 

 and as the river was high we were obliged to ;take 

 the inland trail. The third night we were forced to 

 make a dry camp, the cattle having had no water since 

 the morning. Nevertheless, we got them bedded down 

 without difficulty, and one of the cowboys and myself 

 stood first guard. But very soon after nightfall, when 

 the darkness had become complete, the thirsty brutes 

 of one accord got on their feet and tried to break out. 

 The only salvation was to keep them close together, 

 as if they once got scattered we knew they could never 

 be gathered ; so I kept on one side and the cowboy 

 on the other, and never in my life did I ride so hard, as 



