256 GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



all great stock counties. These counties comprise the country drained hy the thousands 

 of streams that form the Eio Grande, Nueces, Gaudalupe, San Antonio, Colorado, Leon, 

 Brazos, Trinity, Sahine, and Red Rivers, and is one of the best-watered regions in 

 America. The bluffs and table lands bordering and between these streams are covered 

 with " bunch," " buffalo," and mesquit grasses. 



The cattle princes of these counties are John Hittson, who has 50,000 cattle ; William 

 Hittson, who has 8,000 head ; George Beavers, 6,000 ; Charles Rivers, 10,000 ; James 

 Brown, 15,000; C. J. Johnson, 8,000; S. E. Jackson, 4,000; Robert Sloan, 12,000, (half 

 Durham stock) ; Anderson Brothers, 6,000 ; Coggins & Parks, 20,000 ; Samuel Vaughn, 

 6,000; Martin Childers, 10,000; Cunningham, 8,000; Mauskow, 8,000; Lacy & Colman, 

 12,000 ; John Chisholm, 30,000. 



Jack Hittson. — John Hittson' s ranch is in Palo Pinto County, on the Brazos River, 

 where he has 50,000 cattle ; he has 300 saddle-horses and 50 herders. He drives about 

 10,000 head of cattle north annually. Eighteen years ago he was working from day- 

 light till dark in Rust County, Tennessee, a timbered section, felling trees, cutting, 

 rolling, and burning logs, and clearing the land to raise a little corn and wheat. From 

 experience in the forests of Tennessee, he knew that it would take the three score and 

 ten years of a natural life to clear away the trees and wear out the stumps, and not 

 fancying the doom of hard labor for life he sold his land, and with 60 Texan cows and 

 9 brood mares turned his face toward the setting sun and the grass regions of the 

 Biazos. Less than a score of years have passed and he has 50,000 head of cattle and 

 as many acres of land. Hittson is about forty years old, six feet in height, and broad- 

 shouldered. Has an honest, sunburnt face, with a square, firm-set under jaw, which, 

 as I looked at it, I thought was shut a little firmer, giving him a more determined look 

 than it would otherwise, but for a dozen or two encounters with the fierce and insatia- 

 ble Comanches, who knew Hittson and his old, long, muzzle-loading rifle well, and now 

 know him Avith his "Winchester." I have often wondered what they thought when they 

 pounced on him with his new " Winchester," and received ten shots in a minute instead 

 of one in five minutes. They must have thought the old rifle bewitched. At any rate, 

 they will give him a wide berth, unless they can creep upon him as the hunter does 

 upon the buffalo bull he does not dare to face. Mr. Hittson is establishing a ranch on 

 the South Platte, near old Fort Morgan, for use as his general northern headquarters. 

 He will winter 5,000 cattle there this year, and bring 10,000 head there for sale next 

 season. 



John Chisholm, on the Concho River, is another of the cattle-raisers and drivers of 

 Northwestern Texas, who carries on the business on a princely scale, and whose experi- 

 ence is much like that of Hittson. 



Of the. thousands of owners of the 3,800,000 head of cattle in Texas, not one hundred 

 commenced with large means. They have built themselves up from small beginnings, 

 like Hittson and Chisholm. 



Markets. — The surplus stock is disposed of by packing, by shipping by steamer to the 

 Gulf States, by driving due north to Abilene, Kansas, and Schuyler, Nebraska, and by 

 the northwestern route to the Pecos River, where the droves divide, some going to 

 Arizona and California by the southern route, the greater number, however, keeping a 

 northern course up the Pecos River to the Arkansas River, crossing at and above Bent's 

 Old Fort, and thence along the eastern base of the mountains, through Colorado and 

 across the Black Hills to the Union Pacific Railroad, and on to the great valleys and 

 markets of Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and the Pacific States. 



Drovers of the northwestern trade. — The parties engaged in this trade are : John Hittson, 

 who has driven 7,000 cattle this season; John Chisholm, 6,000 ; Frank Turkersly, 1,500 ; 

 McKidrick, 1,500; Stephen Jones, 2,000; W. A. & W. P. Black, 1,500; James Hart, 

 1,100; Wilson, 800; J. B. Henderson, 1,600; William Forsythe, 1,500 ; C. C. Campbell, 

 3,000; Henry Martin, 1,000; Robert Wyte, 1,500; Samuel Goldston, 1,500; John Ander- 

 son, 1,500; James Patterson, 8,000; George F. Reynolds, 5,500; Charles Goodnight, 

 5,000, and Martin Caven, 1,200. It is estimated by Texas drovers, who have had fine 

 opportunities to judge, that 100,000 cattle have been driven from Texas on this route 

 during the season of 1870. Of this number Montana has taken 20,000, Wyoming 8,000, 

 Utah 8,000, Idaho 11,000, Nevada 7,000, and California 10,000 ; the other 36,000 have 

 been sold in New Mexico and Colorado — principally in Colorado. 



The beeves are selected out before the herds leave the Black Hills west. If fat, they 

 are at once shipped for Chicago and New York ; if thin, they are left in the valleys of 

 Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska to fatten. 



The amount of money handled by bankers along the base of the mountains from 

 Cheyenne to Trinidad is enormous. I have no data from Avhich to calculate the amount, 

 but it cannot be less than $1,250,000. Every settler who comes into any of these moun- 

 tain Territories, every mine that is opened, every Indian who goes onto reserves and is 

 fed, every soldier who is brought into the country, creates an additional demand for 

 stock cattle and beef. As astounding as the figures may seem, the supply has not been 

 nearly adequate to meet the demand. 



