lways on the bronco's back before he could get going again.
This went on for some time, varied by a swift race out over the plain,
from which the return would be made with the froth down over the hooves
of the horse. Then the cowboys pronounced the bronco broken, but woe
betide the unsuspecting tenderfoot who was tempted to get on the
hurricane deck of what these men called a broken horse.

[Illustration: YUKON RUSH: SUMMIT. CHILCOOT PASS]

[Illustration: GROUP OF INDIAN CHILDREN ON PRAIRIE.]

The Police were good riders and each Division had several constables who
made a speciality of breaking refractory broncos. And the work was
necessary because for months after the horse was first broken he would
break out again on occasion. One day on our line of march to the north
from Calgary, a constable after the noon hour stop found on mounting his
horse that the bronco spirit was still existent, and that bucking was
evidently the order of the day. But the policeman was ready. He banged
the horse over the head with his hat and used the spur till the unruly
animal made a few kangaroo-like leaps and came to a sudden halt at the
edge of the hole where the camp fire had left a bed of hot coals. The
rider was not disturbed by the shock, but the buckle of his cartridge
belt gave way under the strain and the whole thing dropped over the
horse's head into the fire. Those of us who were looking on lost no time
in taking cover when the fire got at those cartridges.

Steele tells us in this same connection of an extraordinary feat of
horsemanship he witnessed by Mr. Charles Sharples, of the Winder Ranch.
Sharples had brought some horses to MacLeod to sell to the Mounted
Police, and had them in a stable near the Old Man's River, where there
was a perpendicular bank about 30 feet high. He started out to show one
of the horses to the Commissioner at the Fort, but the brute bucked
fiercely towards the cut-bank, sidling and fighting against its rider
until at last there seemed to be nothing for it but to go over the bank
side-on. That did not suit Sharples. He turned the brute sharply towards
the precipice, gave it the spur and went out into space. Everybody
rushed to the top to see what had become of this bold horseman, and were
amazed to see him still firm in the saddle with the horse swimming
towards the opposite bank, none the worse for his wild leap. Steele does
not tell us whether Sharples made a sale of that horse, but he deserved
t