268 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



with whip and spurs I ran the pony along its edge, 

 turning back the beasts at one point barely in time 

 to wheel and keep them in at another. The ground 

 was cut up by numerous little gullies, and each of 

 us got several falls, horses and riders turning complete 

 somersaults. We were dripping with sweat, and our 

 ponies quivering and trembling like quaking aspens, 

 when, after more than an hour of the most violent 

 exertion, we finally got the herd quieted again. 



On another occasion while with the round-up we 

 were spared an excessively unpleasant night only 

 because there happened to be two or three great corrals 

 not more than a mile or so away. All day long it had 

 been raining heavily, and we were well drenched ; but 

 towards evening it lulled a little, and the day herd, a 

 very large one of some two thousand head, was gathered 

 on an open bottom. We had turned the horses loose, 

 and in our oilskins cowered, soaked and comfortless, 

 under the lee of the wagon, to take a meal of damp 

 bread and lukewarm tea, the sizzling embers of the 

 fire having about given up the ghost after a fruitless 

 struggle with the steady downpour. Suddenly the wind 

 began to come in quick, sharp gusts, and soon a regular 

 blizzard was blowing, driving the rain in stinging level 

 sheets before it. Just as we were preparing to turn 

 into bed, with the certainty of a night of more or less 

 chilly misery before us, one of my men, an iron-faced 

 personage whom no one would ever have dreamed had 

 a weakness for poetry, looked towards the plain where 

 the cattle were and remarked, ' I guess there's " racing 

 and chasing on Cannobie Lea " now, sure.' Following 

 his gaze, I saw that the cattle had begun to drift before 

 the storm, the night guards being evidently unable to 



