AMONG THE COWBOYS 271 



ranch some thirty odd years ago. 1 " At a reasonable 

 price we had bought out another cattleman, his ranches, 

 cattle, and saddle-horses. As required by law, we also 

 adopted and recorded a cattle brand. Our first business 

 was to brand our now considerable herd, which entailed 

 an immense amount of very hard work. This in later 

 years would have been no very great undertaking, but 

 at that time ' squeezers ' and branding ' chutes ' were 

 not known. Our corrals were primitive and not suited 

 for the work, and our cattle extraordinarily wild and 

 not accustomed to control of any kind. Indeed, the 

 men we had bought out had sold to us for the simple 

 reason that they could not properly handle them. The 

 four-legged beasties had got beyond their control, and 

 many of them had almost become wild animals. These 

 cattle, too, had very little of the * improved ' character 

 in them. Well-bred bulls had never been introduced. 



Some of the bulls we found had almost reached their 

 allotted span crusty old fellows indeed, and scarred 

 in many a battle ; ' moss-heads ' we called them, and 

 the term was well applied, for their hoary old heads 

 gave the idea of their being covered with moss. 



Most of the cattle had never been in a corral in 

 their lives, and some of the older steers were absolute 

 ' outlaws,' magnificent creatures, ten to twelve years 

 of age, with immense spreading horns, sleek and glossy 

 sides, and. quite unmanageable. They could not be 

 got into a herd, or if got in would very soon walk out 

 again. Eventually some had to be shot on the range 

 like any wild animal, simply to get rid of them ; but 

 they at least afforded us many a long and wild gallop. 



There was one great steer in particular, reckoned to 

 ' See Bibliography, 46. 



