advance of the cattle the deep note grows louder by almost
imperceptible degrees, but at last, when the lines begin to be driven
together at the centre, it has increased to a deafening uproar.
Conversation is impossible; orders are shouted as in a storm at sea.
When the converging processions have come so near that the animals can
be distinguished, it is interesting to look closely at the passing
lines, in which every breed and size and color of cattle is represented,
from the small tawny Texas cow, as wild as a deer, to the large
high-bred Durham bull that paces heavily along nodding his head at
every step with an aristocratic air of self-satisfaction. The leaders
of a herd are always the strong, fat steers, walking with a quick
step, carrying their heads erect, and glancing about with restless
eyes,--powerful, swift animals, ready when anything startles them to
break into a stampede that will try the mettle of the best horses in the
effort to stop them.

To one who has only known cattle in the Eastern States from watching
working-oxen crawling along a road a mile and a half in an hour, or mild
old dairy-cows loafing home from pasture at night, these spirited wild
cattle seem a different race of animals. A new-comer to the plains can
hardly believe that cattle are capable of great speed; but let him help
in driving a herd for a few days, and his opinion is changed. A small
calf lagging in the rear of a herd is sometimes seized with an insane
notion that his mother has been left behind if he loses sight of her
for a moment. He starts backward on the trail, "like a streak of greased
lightning," his pursuer would say. An accomplished cow-boy is often
baffled for some time in such a chase. His horse, of course, will
outstrip a calf in a long run; but just when he has headed him off, the
exasperating little brute will dodge like a hare, and, while the horse
is carried on by his impetus, the calf is off again as fast as ever in
search of his forsaken parent. I have known a "tender-foot" to disappear
over the bluffs on such a chase in the middle of the afternoon and
return at night crestfallen, to acknowledge himself vanquished by a most
insignificant little calf.

After the leaders of the herd generally follow the young stock,--the
yearlings and two-year-olds,--with the fat dry cows scattered along
the line; then the multitude of cows followed by calves; and last the
lagging new-born calves, attended and coaxed along by fus