is
remains to pollute the river, we made a last pull at an angle, and the
dead beef was removed.

We bade Horsehead Crossing farewell that afternoon and camped for the
night above Dagger Bend. Our route now lay to the northwest, or up
the Pecos River. We were then out twenty-one days from Belknap,
and although only half way to our destination, the worst of it was
considered over. There was some travel up and down the Pecos valley,
the route was even then known as the Chisum trail, and afterward
extended as far north as Fort Logan in Colorado and other government
posts in Wyoming. This cattle trace should never be confounded with
the Chisholm trail, first opened by a half-breed named Jesse Chisholm,
which ran from Red River Station on the northern boundary of Texas to
various points in Kansas. In cutting across the bends of the Rio Pecos
we secured water each day for the herd, although we were frequently
under the necessity of sloping down the banks with mattocks to let the
cattle into the river. By this method it often took us three or four
hours to water the herd. Until we neared Fort Sumner precaution never
relaxed against an Indian surprise. Their sign was seen almost daily,
but as there were weaker outfits than ours passing through we escaped
any further molestation.

The methods of handling such a herd were a constant surprise to me, as
well as the schooling of these plainsmen drovers. Goodnight had come
to the plains when a boy of ten, and was a thorough master of their
secrets. On one occasion, about midway between Horsehead Crossing and
our destination, difficulty was encountered in finding an entrance to
the river on account of its abrupt banks. It was late in the day,
and in order to insure a quiet night with the cattle water became an
urgent necessity. Our young foreman rode ahead and found a dry, sandy
creek, its bed fully fifty yards wide, but no water, though the sand
was damp. The herd was held back until sunset, when the cattle were
turned into the creek bed and held as compactly as possible. The heavy
beeves naturally walked back and forth, up and down, the sand just
moist enough to aggravate them after a day's travel under a July sun.
But the tramping soon agitated the sands, and within half an hour
after the herd had entered the dry creek the water arose in pools,
and the cattle drank to their hearts' content. As dew falls at night,
moisture likewise rises in the earth, and with the twilight hour, t