two chairs made out of the antlers of an elk. In his quiet way he said to me, "Mr. Clay, you have helped me more than once out of a tight place and I would like to give you these chairs," and so they came along in due course. Today they stand on the lawn of our cottage by the Atlantic.

Every time I see them I think of the old man, of the pleasant hours we spent together, of the vivid scenes he had passed through on the frontier, of the rise and fall of the cattle business and how amid disaster and losses he kept his head and left behind him an honored name.

In the second annual report made to the shareholders, 11th March, 1885, in which the purchase of the Kelly and Whitcomb properties are reported, there occurs the following rather astounding paragraph:

The number of mature steers marketed is less than was anticipated and the calf brand is also a little short of expectation. In explanation of this, Mr. Swan states that the general range losses in some exceptionally bad years must have been heavier than they were at the time believed to be; that severe spring storms, as for example that in April, 1883, kill not only young calves, but sometimes also newly calved cows, and that ranchmen have now come to be aware that outside brandings do not, as they have hitherto imagined, compensate for these losses. During the years 1881 and 1882, when the herds on the Chug and the Sybille were in the hands of the native Corporations, from whom they were purchased by this Company, no allowances other than outside branding was made for losses; and although at the time that was considered to be sufficient, Mr. Swan states that observation, not only of our own but of our neighbours' herds especially during the past year, now leads him to believe that losses in excess of the outside branding have accumulated in those years in which no special allowance was made for deaths or strays. Although the Directors feel assured that the actual number of cattle on the range does not differ materially from that on the books, they desire that the book numbers shall be reliable estimates for each year's business; and that if there be error it shall be on the side of safety. After consultation with Mr. Swan, they have accordingly deemed it prudent and proper to write off, in addition to the annual deduction, 200 bulls, 2,200 steers, and 5,500

COWS.

Slowly light was being turned under the manipulation of Swan on the book count. He was taking time by the forelock and preparing against the evil day. During 1884 the

company also purchased 549,423 acres of land from the U. P. R. R., intermediate sections, and situated in Albany and Carbon Counties, Wyo., payable in ten yearly installments. There were also purchased 9,764 Texas steers and another lot of 1,747 which had been turned loose on the range were bought in the spring, 1885, a total of 11,500 cattle placed on a range already seriously overstocked. Most of these cattle died and never reached market. Calculations are also made that the expense of running the cattle is 56 cents per head. To this has to be added 12 2-3 cents per head for taxes. Excellent if the numbers had been verified, but the whole fabric was like a house built on a quicksand. Mr. Swan's "zealous efforts" were also commended, although it is doubtful if he ever saw the ranch except when the Scotch deputation was looking over the property. He had other fish to fry. He was busy floating other properties, among them the Ogallala Land & Cattle Co., the Wyoming Hereford Association, situated down Crow Creek some eight or ten miles from Cheyenne, both of which came to grief, although the latter company after being in the hands of a receiver (Colin Hunter) passed into the hands of Messrs. Altman & McIlvane and is now controlled by a company of which Mr. J. D. Husted of Denver, Colorado, is the leading light. But Swan was not alone in this class of business. Many others in Wyoming were at the same game of buying and selling unknown assets. It was worse than buying a gold mine or staking your dollars at faro, with less fun but more health giving if you rode the for the range. The report year 1885 presented to the shareholders 12th March, 1886, is more or less an apology for poor prices, expectations of increasing values in the future and 3,000 old steers are chopped off the books because they can't be found, and yet during this year of 1886 the directors, doubtless influenced by Swan, purchased the Reel herd of cattle by book count when everybody in the ranch business knew that all herds of cattle were notoriously short, many of them having 50 per cent less in actual numbers than the book count. The report of the

company for the above year is placed before the shareholders 17th March, 1887. No dividend is paid. Prices are at a low ebb. With this excuse few steers are shipped. Out of the 11,500 Texas steers, half of them at least four year olds, only 481 are sent to market. Eventually about 3,000 of these steers reached the market. In this report another paragraph of serious import appears:

"Diminished sales and smaller calf brand raise the important question: Do the numbers of cattle on the books tally with the numbers on the range? The Directors are of the opinion that the losses of the year, although considerably over an average, will be covered by the deduction of 10 per cent from range bulls, and 8 per cent from the remainder of the range herd and from Grades and Texas, and such deductions have accordingly been made. The annually recurring failures to gather the expected numbers of mature steers, and the reduced calf brand, imply that some shortage still exists, not sufficiently provided for by previous deductions, and the Directors hope, during the present year, to be able to ascertain its extent. They are further of opinion that the greater part of any shortage now remaining, as well as the special deductions already made from the herd numbers, are attributable to deficiency of the herds as enumerated by the Vendors at the time of sale. The Directors expect to have more information to lay before the shareholders at an early date, regarding the right of the company to claim compensation for this original shortage, and the probability of their being able to enforce this claim. A Memorial upon these subjects has been prepared by the Company's Law Agent in full detail, and submitted to eminent American Counsel, whose opinion will be received very soon."

Nothing is said, however, about the shortage of the Texas steers. This unfortunate deal is passed over in the regular reports, although it may have been mentioned in an interim report dated 7th December, 1887, of which we have not a copy. At the very time the meeting was being held in Edinburgh thousands of carcasses all over the West and Northwest were withering in valleys and on divides, in deep arroyos amid willow brakes, driven by bitter blizzards over the rim rock or forced into ravines where the tired, emaciated dumb brutes lay down and rested from their labors. The lazy buzzard, the big grey wolf, the sneaking coyote supped well. Away in New England homes, across the broad Atlantic in

cozy corners of Scottish cities, there was no dream, no warning what had happened, making many simple folk poorer in money and richer in experience. The cattle cyclone like an Alpine avalanche was no respecter of persons. It hit the just and the unjust. It was the protest of nature against the love of gain, against greed, mismanagement and that happygo-lucky sentiment which permeates frontier life. And yet what would the West have been without the trapper, the miner and the cowpuncher, the pioneers in that wondrous country which pours wealth through its products into an already overflowing reservoir?