. Our country: West. ld and starvation. It is the business of the cowboy to prevent, if possible,such calamities. Then in spring comes the general herds of various owners are all mingled together ; andsome have strayed twenty or thirty or more miles from country has to be scoured two or three times over, tobring in all the stragglers from the gulches and small streams ;and weeks are spent in bringing all together in one enormousbunch. All the herders of the region unite in the work of theround-up. They travel in companies, each with its cook andcamping apparatus, carrying
. Our country: West. ld and starvation. It is the business of the cowboy to prevent, if possible,such calamities. Then in spring comes the general herds of various owners are all mingled together ; andsome have strayed twenty or thirty or more miles from country has to be scoured two or three times over, tobring in all the stragglers from the gulches and small streams ;and weeks are spent in bringing all together in one enormousbunch. All the herders of the region unite in the work of theround-up. They travel in companies, each with its cook andcamping apparatus, carrying their canned food with them, COWBOYS OF THE PLAINS. 225 even their canned milk, if they wish milk for their coffee ; forone thing a cowboy never does is to milk one of his herd. If they wish for fresh meat, they may, perhaps, shoot anantelope or deer,where such wild game still abides. Otherwise,they choose a Maverick out of the herd for the butchers Maverick is an animal that has no brand ; so-called after a. The Work of the Round-Up. man of that name whose herd, it was noticed, increasedmagically, and who was found to make a business of pickingup stray cattle that bore no owners mark. If no Maverick is handy, they choose any well-conditionedsteer, kill and eat it, crediting it to the owner whose brand itbears. The round-up has reached its most important stage whenall the cattle of that part of the country have been comes the work of cutting out. The most skilled of thecowboys ride in among the frightened and bellowing herd and 226 COWBOYS OF THE PLAINS. separate the different brands, cutting out with wonderful dashand rapidity the cattle of each owner. The movement, the yelling, the bellowing, the rush ofrider, and horse, the flying rope, the running out of theselected animals,— all this gives great animation to the scene. Occasionally, in the round-up, neither the brand nor theearmarks of a beast can be readily made out. In that casethe rope is used, t
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