9} NATURE'S REALM. 
ent watering places, etc., along the route, some 
passenger would call out: ‘‘Where are we 
now, Basil?” And Basil, who, by the way, 
had been enjoying a rather extensive bout with 
Bacchus while in Deadwood, was dozing in the 
corner of the stage, would start suddenly up, 
pull aside the leather curtain, and, thrusting 
out his head, take a sweeping glance at the 
-dark landscape without and name the locality 
forthwith. And the driver, whose confidence 
in Clement’s ability was unlimited, would tri- 
‘umphantly respond: ‘You're mighty right, 
Basil; that’s jest whar we be.” 
Although well-to-do in the world, being the 
‘owner of fine pony herds and also consider- 
ably advanced in years, yet with each succeed- 
ing autumn Clement rarely fails to load a pack 
animal with blankets and traps and mounting 
his favorite riding pony depart for a few weeks’ 
trapping amid the haunts frequented so often 
in his younger days, returning usually with a 
fine pack of furs and a fresh budget of advent- 
ures. Clement is the very essence of the hos- 
pitality so characteristic of the frontier, and 
the wayfarer who may chance to pass a night 
in his tidy, well-kept cabin will be eniertained 
with a bundle of truthful and exciting reminis- 
cences, delivered with a series of vehement 
-gesticulations and a rattling volubility that is 
simply amazing. After a healthy pull at the 
wayfarer’s flask of the antidote for the bites of 
rattlers, old Basil will proceed to regale him 
with an account of the time that he was chased 
by gray wolves on the Powder River. and of a 
certain night on the Belle Fourche when a 
prowling wildcat attempted to appropriate a 
fine parcel of beaver tails which were being 
held in reserve for soup, and how his own 
attempt to pulverize the midnight marauder 
with a club resulted in his buckskin pantaloons 
being reduced to shoe strings. The interest 
of these recitals is greatly heightened by the 
variety ot gymnastic evolutions in which old 
Basil invariably indulges during their rehearsal. 
‘Chairs and other portable objects within the 
cabin are converted for the time being into 
imaginary wolves and wildcats, and are ac- 
cordingly subjected to the same quota of violent 
kicks and cuffs combined with a shower of 
maledictions identical to those administered to 
his genuine adversaries. 
In respect to the sagacity of wild animals 
whose habits he has had abundant opportunities 
to observe, Clement yields the palm to the 
beaver, the instinctive cunning of which he 
strenuously insists falls little short of human 
intelligence. Sometimes, he declares, a mis- 
chief-loving beaver will, during the night, spring 
a trap with a stick apparently for thé mere. 
purpose of tantalizing its would-be captor. - 
Basil’s admiration for the sagacity of the 
beaver, however, is exceeded only by his pro- 
found contempt for the sneaking coyote. Any 
brute, he maintains, that can make a comfort- 
able lunch off a saddle-flap or a rawhide lariat 
is unworthy of the ammunition required to 
destroy it. 
Although Basil makes no claim to ever 
having attacked a grizzly bear single-handed, 
yet in camping with the Sioux he has frequently 
assisted in dispatching these formidable terrors. 
Moreover, he corroborates the statement that 
the Indians during a protracted encounter with 
a grizzly and while taking an _ occasional 
breathing spell when the final issue of the 
struggle is already decided in their favor, will 
address the bear as if it were a rational crea- 
ture, upbraiding it for its temerity and lack of 
judgment in daring to stand fight against foes 
so superior to him in power; knowing as he 
must, that the result could be nothing but his 
certain defeat. 
Ciement’s home is located near the mouth of 
the Cheyenne, the favorite river of the Sioux 
and to which they have given, the name or 
Wak-paush-te, or good river. With his beaver 
cap, his fringed leggings and moccasins which 
comprise his usual costume in winter, he pre- 
sents the appearance of a typical specitnen of 
the old-time class of hunters and trappers who 
have long since preceded him to the Happy 
Hunting Grounds of Eternity. 

