Cattle driving, too, on the pasture hills afforded exercise and excitement. Wakefield writes: “Owners of cattle brand their herd and let them run loose over the hills, and then drive them at a gallop into page 84 the stock yard when they are wanted. The cattle get exceedingly wild and fast, so that it requires bold and hard riding in some instances to head them. The stock whip, a very necessary instrument for this work requires some description for English readers. A stout wooden handle a foot in length is attached to a heavy thong of plaited hide, about fifteen feet long, from the handle to the end of the lash. The whip is whirled two or three times round the head, and cracked with a report as loud as a pistol in the face of a stubborn animal. The wildest cattle when charging you will turn from it, if it be used with skill; but an inexperienced hand is very apt to slice his own face or injure his horse severely, without at all alarming the cattle.”