to convince Scholar of the
feasibility of swimming the herds. Their cattle were thrown well away
from the ford, and Scholar assured us that his outfit would be on hand
whenever we were ready to cross, and even invited all hands of us to
come to his wagon for dinner. When returning to our herd, Flood told
me that Scholar was considered one of the best foremen on the trail,
and why he should refuse to swim his cattle was unexplainable. He must
have time to burn, but that didn't seem reasonable, for the earlier
through cattle were turned loose on their winter range the better. We
were in no hurry to cross, as our wagon would be gone all day, and it
was nearly high noon when we trailed up to the ford.

With the addition to our force of Scholar and nine or ten of his men,
we had an abundance of help, and put the cattle into the water
opposite two islands, our saddle horses in the lead as usual. There
was no swimming water between the south shore and the first island,
though it wet our saddle skirts for some considerable distance, this
channel being nearly two hundred yards wide. Most of our outfit took
the water, while Scholar's men fed our herd in from the south bank, a
number of their men coming over as far as the first island. The second
island lay down the stream some little distance; and as we pushed the
cattle off the first one we were in swimming water in no time, but the
saddle horses were already landing on the second island, and our lead
cattle struck out, and, breasting the water, swam as proudly as swans.
The middle channel was nearly a hundred yards wide, the greater
portion of which was swimming, though the last channel was much wider.
But our saddle horses had already taken it, and when within fifty
yards of the farther shore, struck solid footing. With our own outfit
we crowded the leaders to keep the chain of cattle unbroken, and
before Honeyman could hustle his horses out of the river, our lead
cattle had caught a foothold, were heading up stream and edging out
for the farther shore.

I had one of the best swimming horses in our outfit, and Flood put me
in the lead on the point. As my horse came out on the farther bank, I
am certain I never have seen a herd of cattle, before or since, which
presented a prettier sight when swimming than ours did that day. There
was fully four hundred yards of water on the angle by which we
crossed, nearly half of which was swimming, but with the two islands
which gave them