Camping and Hunting in the Shoshone 



knot that fastens, as nothing else can fasten, 

 the strange assortment of everything, from 

 a Dutch oven to a stag's head, that may 

 chance to form the pack ; and w^hen he 

 has mastered the secret of the diamond 

 hitch, he is still years from being a thor- 

 ough packer. To see all the impedimenta 

 of a hunting-camp for a party of four 

 travellers and their men quickly done up 

 into the neatest and tightest packages im- 

 aginable, and then bound, as none but a 

 Westerner can bind them, on the back 

 of an ill-conditioned Indian pony, to stay 

 there, as I have seen packs stay, all day 

 long, with just one tightening up, as up 

 and down we go over rocks and against 

 trees, is a wonderful instance of skill and 

 careful planning. 



Some days, of course, the packs won't 

 " ride ; " sometimes the devil has com- 

 pletely mastered the natures of horse and 

 mule, as long ago he did the pigs. We 

 once started from Big Timber Station 

 across a level and stony plain, at five 

 o'clock sharp, on a sweltering August 

 morning. By four that evening we had 

 made precisely two and a half miles. I 

 think the outfit's survival as an outfit on 

 that occasion is due to the fact that the 

 clear stream of the Bowlder (full of trout, 



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