The
pole, the cordelle, the paddle, and the sail, in turn helped them
to navigate the great streams which led out into the West. And
presently there was to come that tremendous upheaval wrought by
the advent of the iron trails which, scorning alike waterways and
mountain ranges, flung themselves almost directly westward across
the continent.
The iron trails, crossing the northern range soon after the Civil
War, brought a market to the cattle country. Inevitably the men
of the lower range would seek to reach the railroads with what
they had to sell--their greatest natural product, cattle on the
hoof. This was the primary cause of the great northbound drives
already mentioned, the greatest pastoral phenomena in the story
of the world.
The southern herds at that time had no market at their doors.
They had to go to the market, and they had to go on foot. That
meant that they must be driven northward by cattle handlers who
had passed their days in the wild life of the lower range. These
cowmen of course took their character and their customs northward
with them, and so they were discovered by those enthusiastic
observers, newly arrived by rail, whom the cowmen were wont to
call "pilgrims.
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