52 RANCHING IN THE CANADIAN WEST 



never losing sight of them for a moment until the 

 storm abates (perhaps after two or three days), 

 and he is able to drive them back to the camp 

 again. 



What one has particularly to be wary of are early 

 frosts during lambing. Many thousands of newly- 

 born lambs have perished for want of forethought 

 and care on the part of owners, when they might 

 have been saved if a little trouble had been taken 

 with them. Some ranchers employ rather an in- 

 genious contrivance in the shape of a large, some- 

 what flat box, exactly fitting the interior of their 

 waggons, which is divided off into compartments 

 after the style of mineral-water cases. In each one 

 of these, which is snugly lined with hay, a lamb 

 is placed, which is found to need resuscitation, when 

 the waggon goes its rounds in the early morning to 

 pick up any which have been given birth to during 

 the night, in order to thaw them out in the shed, 

 where their mothers foUow them. When snow 

 is any depth on the ground, hay has to be fed 

 either in the corral or shed, according to the 

 severity of the weather, as described in the case of 

 cattle. 



I do not propose to go fully into all the details 

 concerning sheep and their management, as it would 

 be a pure waste of time to do so, considering that 



