wild horses and antelope through the dry season.
But which lakes held water and which not was only known to these wild
mustang bands and our mares that ran with them. We took out with us some
hundred of the gentler mares, the idea being to graze these round camp,
and on getting round a bunch of the outlaws to drive them into this herd
and so hold them. Nearly every bunch we found had mustangs amongst them.
The mustang stallions we shot whenever possible. They were the cause of
all our trouble. These stallions did not lead the bands, but fell
behind, driving the mares in front and compelling them to gallop. When
pressed, the stud would wheel round as if to challenge his pursuers. He
presented a fine spectacle, his eyes blazing and his front feet pawing
the ground. What a picture subject for an artist! The noble stallion,
for he does look noble, no matter how physically poor a creature he may
chance to be, wheeling round to challenge and threaten his pursuer, his
mane and tail sweeping the ground, fury breathing from his nostrils and
his eyes flashing fire! Is he not gaining time for his mares and progeny
to get out of danger? A noble object and a gallant deed! Then was the
time to shoot. But, yourself being all in a sweat and your horse
excited, straight shooting was difficult to accomplish. We worked on a
system; on finding a band, one man would do the running for six or eight
miles, then another would relieve him, and so on, the idea being to get
outside of them and so gradually round them in to the grazing herd. We
had special horses kept and used for this purpose, fast and long-winded,
as the pace had to be great and one must be utterly regardless of dog
and badger holes, etc. This kind of work we kept up for a couple of
weeks, some days being successful, some days getting a run but securing
nothing. We made a satisfactory gathering of all the gentler and more
tractable mares, but some of the wilder ones we could not hold. At night
we stood guard over the band, and it was amusing, and even alarming, how
the stallions would charge out and threaten any rider who approached too
near his ladies. A good deal of fighting went on too between these very
jealous gentlemen. As illustrating what the wild stallions are capable
of, I may relate here how, one night when we had a small bunch of quite
gentle mares and colts in a corral, a mustang stallion approached it,
tore down the gate poles, took the mares out and forced them to hi