CATTLE-HERDING IN THE GREAT WEST.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5059, 11 June 1877, Page 3

CATTLE-HERDING IN THE GREAT WEST.

(From the Spectator.)

The American cattle trade is exciting so much interest iu England, where two of our most pressing needs just now are cheaper meat and outlets for our boys, that any authentic information abqut it is of value. We are glad, therefore, to be able to print the following extracts from the last letters received from the son of a contributor. We may state that eighteen months since he " hired" with a Colorado cattle-king, Goodnight by name, to go down to Texas, and drive up a herd ; and at the end of the drive he and lu'3 companion, a young Scotchman, were taken into partnership. Towards the <nd of last year the rumor of an unoccupied canon on the borders of Texas tempted them south, and they struck it in November ■ "January 1, 1877.

" It has been a long time since I last wrote, and I am afraid will be some time before I shall have a chance to send off a letter, but I mean to be prepared for it. Goodnight left here on the -Ith of November, and by the next night we had all the things down the mountain. We were able to make a ' kinder' road (very much ' kinder,' you might have thought) for the first third and last third of the hill ; but tho middle was too steep, and we had to unload the waggons and carry the things down on our backs. We then let the waggons down, hind-end first, with a rope attached to the pole and turned once round a tree, and a man at each wheel. We got everything down safely, and broke nothing, which was lucky. Almost the first thing done in the canon was the slaying of two wild turkeys', which were verygood eating. We drove the cattle down to where we are now, about twelve milo3 from where we struck the cauon.

"Everything went on much as usual—with the exception of two snow-storms, one on November 13 and the other on November 22, but these are still fresh in my mind, as we had no house, and doing everything, especiallygetting out of bed, in a snow-storm is 'bracing,' to say the least of it—until December 11, when riding along down the river alono on ' Cubby' I espied a bear. I immediately threw the persuaders into 'Cubby,' and ran him up to the bear, who, of course, at first sight of me, made off as fast as possible. I kept circling round, keeping him in tho open till I had killed him. I had no gun with ine, only my six-shooter. I shot fourteen times before I got him to stop, but I ( hink I only hit him three times. Shooting ' on the dead run ' (the way they say ' at full gallop ' out here) is very good fun, and exciting, but with me as yet it is very chance-work, as about all a fellow can do is to throw the pistol down towards tho object and pull trigger. I have heard of good shots on horseback with a pistol, but haven't struck any yet. I .skinned my bear and brought the hide into camp, when I rather surprised ' tho buys' as though we knew there were bears down here, having seen their tracks, we did not expect to see them without, hunting them. Ley Dyer (one of the boys) has shot a hear since, and we have been liviiif on him for some time. The meat is the most delicious you can imagine. I never saw any meat as fat as the bears we have killed. Their skins are so glossy, and when ruDiiing they seem to tremble all over. •, The only kind of bear we have seen yet is the black bear. On the sth I struck ' an outfit,' hunting a cattle range. They were rather vague about where they were, and from what they told me they were thirty miles out of their reckoning, and they did not even know the name of our river,_ although they know that it was somewhere in the country. The next day I struck two follows hunting cows, or rather travelling over the country on the spec, of finding cattle which a large company lost on the drive from Texas to Kansas. The ' Texas drive' this year was about 270,000 head of cattle. The company they are working for lost about 2000, and drove about 75,000.

One of the fellows is a Scotchman, and reminded me very much of John ; they are here yet, and will be, as hmg as they like. Anybody striking an out of the way place like this stays there as long as he feels so disposed. On the 15th, we finished the first room of our house, aud so felt easy about future storms. On the 16th, we went down the river to Icill some turkeys for Christmas, and on a little stream about fourteen miles down we got fourteen. I killed my first (I have just come out of doors from helping to ' get away ' with the last of them). The reason I have been seeing everybody is that I am the only one riding every day, as the cattle are very little trouble now, aud seem contented (I don't know if it is because they can hap' y get out), and the rest of the boys have been working on the house aud corrals. On the 22nd, I washed all my clothes, a very great undertaking, as I had a large collection—in fact, every stitch I possessed—not having washed my clothes since we left the Canadian. On the 23rd and 24th it snowed. We all shaved and ' greased up' with bear-oil for Christmas, —the only thing we could think of doing, as we had run out of all grub except flour ; but then flour, bear, buffalo, and turkey is pretty good lining. On the 25th, Christmas Day, Ley started up country to find what had become of our prisoners, and corn for the horses, as they were over-due nearly a mouth. It snowed again on the 2Sth, aud the snow is on the ground yet. We all think it must have been a pretty severe storm in the outer world (i.e., out of the canon), as we are pretty far south. Yesterday we repeated the shaving aud greasiiig-up for the new year. It is very curious how it changes fellows, shaving off their beards. Ley Dyer has a very slight growth on the upper lip, and shaving it oft" made him look very long - faced and largetoothed. Dane (another boy) is also ambitious as to his upper lip, and so shaved it, aud his side-whiskers, and underneath his chin, till he looks rather like a navvy, and a pugilistic one 'at that.' They say that Johnson and I look like ' winged outfits' about the head, as nobody wears side-whiskers out West. All these ftems I gather from my almanac, which I have kept ever since I struck the States, and am sorry the new one has not come iu time to begin on at once. I now, having got rid as it were of the old year, will wish you all, or j rather will hope you have had a "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." I did | hope to get off a letter in time for Christmas. These fellows, the lost cattle-hunters, who iu their travels of six weeks struck Port Elliot, with the exception of which they never saw a white man till they came here, say it is 100 miles any way yon make it. Yon may think it strange that we do not start out and go there, but any journey down here means two fellows away for an indefinite time, and our | horses are too poor (through delay of corn) for us to hunt anything but cattle, although, of course, we should like to go to the Fort for letters. They have a weekly mail there, which comes from Port Dodge on the railway. They call it 200 miles from Elliot to Dodge. I do really hope you are beginning to understand the amount of uninhabited country in these parts—it has become a pet hobby of mine thinking about it. The buffalo are pretty thick here. The main herd is about 150 miles south-east of us. The Scotchman saw it two years ago, and says it was about 100 miles long and 50 broad, and I have always heard they are pretty close packed in the main herd. I don't think I told you about the first buffalo I killed. I was lucky on ' Cubby,' who, as you know, is my favorite, and exclusively my own horse (doesn't 'belong to the couceru,' as Goodnight would say). I ran ' Cubby ' right up alongside the buffalo, within about ten feet, and commenced firing with my six-shooter. I brought him down at the sixteenth shot, having, of course, to load and throw over the shells 'on the dead run ;' very exciting and jolly, and not at all dangerous, as long as you don't tumble off your horse at any sharp turn after the buffalo is wounded :

January 9. " On the morning after I had written the above, Walter got into camp with letters and tobacco, so you can fancy what a jolly evening we had. You should have seen the boys going for the baccy,—they got off his saddle before he had time to get down. I got your letters from Offley, also C.'s, L.'s, and P.'s. Please thank them all. I can so easily imagine you all at Offley, and everything geing on 'as per usual.' Thinking of how people at home, especially in country places, seem to have certain things to talk about and do at certain times, is a great source of amusement to me. I was very much struck with it on my run Home last year, especially at Mr. Davies' church, where the fellows seemed to all have on the same coats, &c. Four days ago Ley and I started down the river on an expedition, and he took it into his head to rope ('lasso,' as the yellow-backs have it) a buffalo. He threw his rope on to a buffalo cow, and shot her twice. Tlio cow then commenced ' comiug for him,' and his horse getting scared, ' let into bucking,' and spilt Ley on a stump. He got very badly shaken, and can do nothing yet, but I hope there is nothing else wrong-. For two or three hours he lay and could not move at all, and I had to move him when he had to change positions. The first thing he said was, and is what I believe everybody has in their miuds when badly hurt, ' I tell you, Hugh' (my name in this latitude), ' this thing of life is a mighty uncertain kinder business.'

" I am getting terribly heavy. We all weighed a week ago, and I turned 12st lib. in my shirt-sleeves, and am the heaviest in the 'outfit,' except Goodnight. I put it down to the beur-raeat. Yesterday I struck a buffalohunting ' outfit' (isn't it a handy word?) there are five of them, and they were busy skinning the carcases, leaving all the good meat. It is terrible to think of the hundreds of thousands (fact) of buffalo killed every year for their hides, and the fearful waste of meat. There are hundreds of men who do nothing else, from year's end to year's end. I suppose the'buffalo will be almost a thing of the past in twenty years. Since wo have come down here we have not lulled any cattle for meat, and shall not for years, unless for a change.

"It has been a feaiful winter, as, far up north, cattle were frozen. We were lucky, moving down here just in time. I hope iu a few months we shall be so fixed that you can send papers, as Goodnight brings down 3000 head more cattle iu the spring, and consequently the ' outfit' will be larger. We are a little 'mixed' about the Eastern Question, but suppose from wh'it we gather from sundry stale papers that tb're is to bono war. It would be horrid to j fighting ;<t homo ; a fellow would never .' ;ul easy out here, and would be badly tempt, d to cross the 'Duck I'ond,' which, I suppose, would be very foolish, for by the time we got to know of it out. here it would be half over. A waggon (wo are past tho stage of ' the' waggon) starts up the country the'day after to-morrow, and I start down the river to-morrow, so only have to-night to collect my thoughts, as it was only settled that the waggon should go this morning. It is getting very late, and I cannot summon up any more ideas, although I have not written half I want to.

" Things have never looked ho well £or us before, as uow we have got the cattle into a place where they can hardly get out, and the only things we have to fear are horse and cattle thieven. Our expenses are comparatively over. Of course we have been under very heavy expenses till now, as it takes so many men to move cattle about the country, and you are more liable to lose them, and they never do as well and ' breed up ' till they are settled and as it were at home. I shall not cttter on this any more till next fall, when we rhall sell our beef, and I hope to send you a very favorable report in figures. In this life tliei-e is a very happy combination of business and pleasure, as a'fellow is always running across game which other men have to hunt, and they very often don't get."

The Sheffield Tdtyraph reports that the grocers there have held a meeting to consider the advisability of discontinuing the presentation of pictorial almanacs at Christmas. The meetin" was opposed to the continuance of the practice, preferring to make a present annually to some local charity. As, however,_ some members of the trade were reported to intend to continue the almanac presentations, the meeting came to no decision.