re there were channels,
we could neither force the cattle nor ride ourselves faster than a
walk on account of the depth of the water, but when we struck the
shallows, which were the really dangerous places, we forced the cattle
with horse and quirt. Near the middle of the river, in shoal water,
Rod Wheat was quirting up the cattle, when a big dun steer, trying to
get out of his reach, sank in the quicksand, and Rod's horse stumbled
across the animal and was thrown. He floundered in attempting to rise,
and his hind feet sank to the haunches. His ineffectual struggles
caused him to sink farther to the flanks in the loblolly which the
tramping of the cattle had caused, and there horse and steer lay, side
by side, like two in a bed. Wheat loosened the cinches of the saddle
on either side, and stripping the bridle off, brought up the rear,
carrying saddle, bridle, and blankets on his back. The river was at
least three hundred yards wide, and when we got to the farther bank,
our horses were so exhausted that we dismounted and let them blow. A
survey showed we had left a total of fifteen cattle and the horse in
the quicksands. But we congratulated ourselves that we had bogged down
only three head in recrossing. Getting these cattle out was a much
harder task than the twenty head gave us the day before, for many of
these were bogged more than a hundred yards from the bank. But no time
was to be lost; the wagon was brought up in a hurry, fresh horses were
caught, and we stripped for the fray. While McCann got dinner we got
out the horse, even saving the cinches that were abandoned in freeing
him of the saddle.

During the afternoon we were compelled to adopt a new mode of
procedure, for with the limited amount of rope at hand, we could only
use one rope for drawing the cattle out to solid footing, after they
were freed from the quagmire. But we had four good mules to our chuck
wagon, and instead of dragging the cattle ashore from the pommels of
saddles, we tied one end of the rope to the hind axle and used the
mules in snaking the cattle out. This worked splendidly, but every
time we freed a steer we had to drive the wagon well out of reach, for
fear he might charge the wagon and team. But with three crews working
in the water, tying up tails and legs, the work progressed more
rapidly than it had done the day before, and two hours before sunset
the last animal had been freed. We had several exciting incidents
during the operati