SPORT AND TRAVEL 149 



in great numbers over the plains beyond. One of 

 the first settlers in this part of the country, whose 

 ranch in the early seventies was situated not far 

 from the present town of Bighorn, told me that on the 

 rare occasions when strangers visited him he used to 

 ask them what meat they would like for dinner, giving 

 them the choice of wapiti, mule deer, white-tailed 

 deer, wild sheep, antelope, or bison; and said that if 

 they chose anything but the last named, he was nearly 

 always able to go out and get it within six hours. The 

 bison, although they were sometimes to be seen in thou- 

 sands close to his cabin, were not always to be de- 

 pended on, as they changed their range according to the 

 season of the year, wandering all over the vast plains 

 of the West in search of the best grass. Bears, too, 

 at that time were so plentiful, my informant told me, 

 that he could not keep them out of his kitchen-garden, 

 which they were in the habit of visiting almost nightly. 

 But what a change has come over the country in 

 twenty years ! There are still a few wapiti, mule 

 deer, and wild sheep left in the Bighorn range, but 

 very, very few, Graham told me, even compared to 

 what there used to be so lately as five years ago, the 

 sheep being now almost entirely confined to the 

 neighbourhood of Cloud Peak. Of the white-tailed 

 deer, once so numerous in all the valleys below the 

 hills, there are now none left anywhere near the town 

 of Bighorn. The bison, too, have long since disap- 

 peared from the neighbouring plains, whilst the ante- 



