d get into
the saddle when he was on me, and my horse being a bit drowsy it needed
sharp digging of the spurs to get out of the way. I forget how many
miles the boys said they had already run him, but it was a prodigious
distance and we were still eight miles from the ranch. The steer was
getting hot, it began to suspect something, and to feel the pressure. As
he came down on me he looked like a mountain, his eyes were bright, he
was blowing a bit, and looked particularly nasty. When in such a
condition it does not do to overpress, as, if you do, the chances are
the steer will wheel round, challenge you and get on the fight. Much
circumspection is needed. He will certainly charge you if you get too
near, and on a tired horse he would have the advantage. So you must e'en
halt and wait--not get down, that would be fatal--wait five minutes it
may be, ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, till the gentleman cools
off a bit. Then you start him off again, not so much driving him now, he
won't be driven, but guiding his course towards the herd. In this case
we succeeded beautifully, though at the end he had to be raced once
more. And so he was finally headed into the round-up; but dear me, he
only entered it from curiosity. No round-up for him indeed! no corral
and no going to market! He entered the herd, took a look round, a sniff
and a smell, and was off again out at the other side as if the devil was
after him, and indeed he wasn't far wrong. The chase was abandoned and
his majesty doomed later on to a rifle bullet wherever found.

Our principal and indeed only corral at that time was of solid stone
walls, a "blind" corral, and most difficult to get any kind of cattle
into. While pushing them in, each man had his "rope" down ready to at
once drop it over the horns of any animal attempting to break back. Thus
half our force would sometimes be seen tying down these truants, which
were left lying on the ground to cool their tempers till we had time to
attend to them; and it is a fact that some of these individuals,
especially females, died where they lay, apparently of broken hearts or
shame at their subjection. They showed no sign of injury by rough usage,
only their damnable tempers, rage and chagrin were responsible for their
deaths.

Inside the corral everything, of course, had to be roped and thrown to
be branded. It was rough and even dangerous work, and individual
animals, again generally cows, would sometimes make des