THEODORE ROOSEVELT [Copyright, 1533, by C. P. Putnam's Sons Published under arrangement with G. Pi Putnam's Sons, New York and London. ] tlic wide plains when I I the prong - buck dwell; I Jr I the hunter must some! L2LJ times face thirst, as wel| lßpsgl as Are and frost. Th<| ""ly time I ever really suffered from thirst wot while hunting prong-buck. It was late in the summer. I wasi with the ranch wagon on the way t(; join a round-up, and as we were out of meat 1 started for a day's hunt. After two or three hours' ride, ud winding coulies, and through the on went with me, driven by an all round plainsman, a man of iron nerves and varied past, the sheriff of out county. He was an old friend oi mine; at one time I had served as deputy-sheriff for the northern end ol the county. In the wagon we carried our food and camp kit, and our threi rolls of bedding, each wrapped in a thick, nearly waterproof canvas sheet we bad a tent, but we never needed it The load being light, the wagon was drawn by but a span of horses, a pail of wild runaways, tough, and gooei travellers. My foreman and I rod* beside the wagon on our wiry, un kempt, unshod cattle-ponies. They car ried us all day at a rack, pace, single foot or slow lope, varied by rapid gal loping when we made long circles aft er game; (lie trot, tln? favorite gaii with eastern park-riders, is disliked bj all peoples who have to do much ol their life-work in the saddle. The first day's ride was not attrac tive. The heal was intense and the dust stifling, as we had to drive somt loose horses for the first few miles and afterwards to rick- up and dowi the sandy river bed, where the cattle had gathered, to look over some yount: steers we had put on the range the preceding spring. When we did cami it was by u pool of stagnant water, ir. a creek bottom, and the mosquitoes were a torment. Nevertheless, a.' evening fell, it was pleasant to clirnl a little knoll nearby and gaze at the rows of strangely colored buttes. grass clad, or of bare earth and scoria, theii soft reels anel purples showing as through a haze, and their irregular out lines gradually losing their sharpness in the fading twilight. My foreman and 1 usually rode fai off to one side of the wagon, looking out for antelope. Of these we at ftrsl saw few, but they grew more plentiful as we journeyed onward, approaching a big. scantily wooded creek, where I had found the prong-horn abundant in previous seasons. They were very wary and watchful whether going sin gly or iu small parties, and the lay of the land made it exceedingly difficult to get within range. The last time i bad hunted in this neighborhood wa in the fall, at the height of the rutting season. Prong-bucks, even more than other game, sevui fairly maddened by erotic excitement. At the time of my former hunt they were in coaseles? motion; each master buck being inces santly occupied in herding his harem, and fighting would-be rivals, while sin gle bucks chased single does as gray hounds chase hares, or else, if no doe.- were in sight, from sheer excitement ran to and fro as if crazy, racing at full speed in one direction, then halt ing, wheeling, and tearing back again just as bard as they coulel go. At this time, however, the rut was still some week.' off, and all the bucks liail to do v.to feed and keep a look out for enemies. Try my best, I cotilil not get within less than four or five hundred yards, and though I took u number shots at these, or even longer iii. . >.es. I missed. If a man is out mere!, for a day's hunt, and has — ||jj jjsj | jj Il'i the levll I'K in arid tin: herd followed. all the time he wishes, lie will not scare the game ami waste cartridges by shooting at such long ranges, pre ferring to spend half a day or more in patient waiting anil earefill stalking; but If he Is traveling, anel is therefore cramped for time, he must take his chances. e\;>n at the cost of burning a gofxl deal of powder. I was tin-illv hcliied to success by a characteristic freak of the game I was following. No other animals are as keen-sighted, or are normally as wary as prong-horns; but no others are so whimsical and odd In their behavior at times, or so subpect. to fits of the most stupid curiosity anel panic. T.atr Jn the afternoon, on topping 11 rise I saw two to '1 bucks racing off about three hundred yards to one side; I scorched desolation of patches of Bad Lands, I reached the rolling prairie. The heat and drought had long burned t lie short grass elull brown; the bot toms of what had been pools were covered with hard, dry, cracked earth. The elay was cloudless, and the beat oppressive l . There were many ante lope, but I got only one shot, breaking a buck's leg; and though I followed it for a couple of hours I could not over take it. By this time It was late in the afternoon, and I was far away from the river; so I pushed for a creek, in the bed of which I had always found pools of water, especially to wards the head, as is usual with plains water nurses. To my chagrin, how ever, they all proved to be dry; and though 1 rode up the creek bed to ward the head, carefully searching for any sign of water, night closed on me before I found any. For two or three hours I stumbled on. leading my horse, in my fruitless search; then a tumble over a cut bank in the dark warned me that I might as well stay where 1 was for the rest of the warm night. Accordingly I unsaddled the horse, and tieel him to a sage brush; after awhile he began to feed on the dewy grass. At lirst I was too thirsty to sleep. Finally ! fell into a sumber. and when I awoke at dawn I felt no thirst. For an hour or two more I continued my search for water in the creek bed: then abaneloned it and rode straight for the river. By the time we reached it my thirst had come back with redoubled force, my mouth was parched, and the horse was in riuite as bad a plighf; we rushed down to the brink, anel it seemed as if we could neither of us ever drink our fill of the tepid, rather muddy water. Of course this experience was merely un pleasant; thirst is not, a source of real danger in the plains country proper, whereas in the hideous eleserts that extend from southern Idaho through I'tah anel Nevada to Arizona, it ever menaces with death the hunter and ex plorer. In the plain: the weather Is apt to bo in extremes; the heat is tropical, the cold arctic, and the droughts are relieved by furious floods. These are generally more severe and lasting in the spring, aft or the melting of the snow; anel fierce local freshets follow the occasional cloudbursts. The large rivers then become wholly impassa ble, and even the smaller are formi dable obstacles. It is not easy to get cattle across a swollen stream, where the current runs like a turbid mill-race over the bed of shifting quicksand. Once five of us took/a thousanel head of trail steers across the Little Mis souri when the river was up, and it was no light task. The muddy current was boiling past the banks covered with driftwood and foul yellow froth, and the frightened cattle shrank from entering it. At last, by hard riding, with much kunl shouting and swing ing of ropes, we got the leaders in.and the whole herd followed. After them we went in our turn, the horses swim ming at one moment, and the next gtaggen'ing and floundering through th" quicksand. I was riding ray pet cutting horse, Muley. which has the provoking habit of making great bounds where the water is just not di"."i enough for swimming; once he all: I unseated mo. Some of the cat tle v- caught b the currents and rolled o\o;- a::d over; most of these we were able, with tho help of our ropes, to put on their feet again; only one was drowned, or rather choked in a qui -ksand. Many st\-am down stream, and in consequence struck a difficult lane 1 .?:".', where the river ran muler a citi bank; these we had to haul out with our ropes. Altbor-v'i I have often lind a horse down in quicksand or in crossing a swollen river, and have had to work hard to save him, I have never myself lost one under such circumstances. Yet once I saw the horse of one of my men drown under him elirectly in front of the ranch house, while he was try ing to cross the river. This was in early spring, soon after the ice had broken. When making long wagon trips over the great plains, antelope often offer the only source of meat supply, save for occasional water fowl, sage fowl, and prairie fowl —the sharp-tailed prairie fowl, be it understood. This is the characteristic grouse of the cat tle" country; the true prairie fowl is a bird of the farming land farther east. Towards the end of the summer of 'O2 T found it necessary to travel from iv. - ranch to the Black TTills. some two ' >:od miles sout' . The ranch wag CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1908 sprang to th * ground,. and flrod three | shots at them in vain, as they ran lik»> I quarter-horse;; until they disappeared | over a slight swell, in a minute, how ever, bark they came, suddenly ap- | pearlng over Ihe crest of the same I swell, immediately In front of me, and, a:; I fi er-wards found by pacing, some three hundred and thirty yards away. They stood side by side facing me, and remained motionless, unheed ing the crack of the Winchester; I aimed at the right-hand one, but a front shot of the kind, at such a dis tance, is rather difficult, and it was not until I flred for the fourth time that he sank back out of sip-lit. I could not tell whether I had killed him, and took two shots at his mate, as the latter went off, but without effect. Running forward, I found the first ®ne dead, the bullet having gone through him lengthwise; the other did j not seem satisfied even yet, and kept hangiriK round In the distance for i some minutes, looking at us. I had thus bagged one prong-buck, j as the net outcome of the expenditure > of fourteen cartridges. This was cer tainly not good shooting; but neither was it as bad as it would seem to the | man inexperienced in antelope hunting. i —€=? They stood side by si<t< facing rnc, uml remained motionless. When fresh meat is urgently needed, j and when time is too short, the hunter who is after antelope in an open flat- 1 tisli country must risk many long j shots. In no other kind of hunting is j there so much long-distance shooting. Throwing the buck into the wagon j we continued our journey across the I prairie, no longer following any road, j and before sunset jolted down towards j the big creek for which we had been j heading. There were many water- j holes therein, and timber of considera- J ble size; box alder and ash gl'ew here j and there in clumps and fringes, be- 1 side the serpentine curves of the near- 1 ly dry torrent bed. the growth being j thickest under the shelter of the occa- j sional low bluffs. \Ve drove down to a heavily grassed bottom, near :t deep, narrow pool, with, at one end, that i rarest of luxuries in the plains coun- j try. a bubbling spring of pure, cold water. With plently of wood, delicious 1 water, ample feed for the horses, and j fresh meal we had every comfort and j luxury incident to camp life in good I weather. The bedding was tossed out. j 011 a smooth spot beside the wagon; | the horses were watered and tethered to picket pius where the feed was 1 best; water was fetched from the I spring; a deep hole was dug for the tire, and the grass roundabout care- j fully burned off; and in a few 1110- i meuts the bread was baking in the j Dutch oven, the potatoes were boiling, 1 antelope steaks were sizzling in the ! frying-pan, and the kettle was ready j for the tea. After supper, eaten with j the relish known well to every hard working and successful liuuter, we sat 1 for half an hour or so round the fire, j and then turned in under the blankets and listened to the wailing of the j coyotes until we fell sound asleep. We determined to stay in this camp all day, so as to try and kill another i prong-buck, as we would soon lit; past j the good hunting grounds. I did not 1 have 1o go far for my game next morn- ; ing. for soon after breakfast, while sitting 011 my canvas bag cleaning my j Title, the sheriff suddenly called to me that a bunch of antelope were coming 1 towards us. Sure enough -there they were, four in number, rather over half a mile off. on the first bench of the prairie, two or three hundred yards ] back of the creek, leisurely feeding in , our direction. In a minute or two J they were out of si^cht, and I instantly j ran along the creek towards them for | a quarter of a mile, and then crawled j up a short shallow coulie, close to the I head of which they seemed likely to 1 pass. When nearly at the end I cau- I tiously raised my hatless head, peered through some straggling weeds, and j at once saw the horns of the buck. He was a big fellow, about a hundred and twenty yards off; the others, a doe | and two kids, were In front. As I lift- | ed myself on my elbows he halted and j turned his raised head towards mre; , the sunlight shone bright on his sup ple, vigorous body with its markings of sharply contrasted brown and white. 1 pulled trigger, and away lie went; but I could see that his race was nearly run, and lie fell after going ( a few hundred yards. w, ~* CARIBOufa; W TIDEODOEE iu X ICopyrlgfct, 1593, by G. P. Putnam's Sons, Published under arrangement with G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York and Ixindon.] iu September I was camped on the shores ol Kootenai Lake, having with me as companions .Tolm Willis and an im passive-looking Indian , lainet i Animal. Coming across through the dense coniferous forests of northern Idaho we had struck the Kootenai Itiver. Then we went down with the current as it wound in lvilf circles through a loup alluvial valley of mixed marsh and woodland, hemmed in by lofty moun- E?-- -■ those know who have gone through .nuch hardship and some little hunger, and have worked violently for several days without tlesh food. The morning after killing Bruin, we again took up our march, heading up stream, that we might goto its sources amidst the mountains, where the snow fields fed its springs. It was two full days' journey thither, but we took much longer to make it, as we kept halting to hunt the adjoining moun tains. On such occasions Ammal was left as camp guard, while the white hunter and I would start by daybreak and return at dark utterly worn out by the excessive fatigue. We knew nothing of caribou, nor where to hunt for them; and we had been told that thus early in the season they were above tree limit 011 the mountain sides. Until within a couple of days of turning our faces back towards the lake we did not come aero's nr. •: i i bou, and saw but a few old -i; • and we began to In- fearful lest we should have to return without getting any. for our shoes had been cut to ribb nis by the sharp rocks, we were almost out of flour, and therefore had but little to eat. However, our perseverance was destined to be rewarded. The first day after reaching our final camp, we hunted across a set of spurs and hollows, but saw nothing living. The next day we started early, deter mined to take a long walk and follow the main stream up to its head, or at least above timber line. The hunter struck so brisk a pace, plunging through thickets and leaping from log to log in the slashes of fallen tim ber, and from boulder to boulder in crossing the rock-slides, that I could hardly keep up to him, struggle as I would, nnd we each of us got several ugly tumbles, saving our ritles at the expense of scraped hands and bruised bodies. We went up . one side of the stream, intending to come down the otlief*; for the forest belt was narrow enough to hunt thoroughly. For two or three hours we toiled through dense growth. Then we came to a spur of open hemlock forest; and 110 sooner had we entered it than the hunter stopped and pointed exultlngly to a well-marked game trail, in which it: was easy at a glance to discern the great round foot prints of our quarry. We hunted care fully over the spur and found several trails, generally leading down alony the ridge; we also found a number of beds, some old and some recent, usual ly placed where the animal could keep a lookout for any foe coining up from the valley. They were merely slight hollows or identations in the pine needles; and, 'ike the game trails, were placed 111 localities similar to those that would lie chosen by black tail deer. The caribou droppings were also very plentiful; and there were signs of where they had browsed 011 the blueberry bushes, cropping off the GHrtwj wc a beautiful shot, as lit shunt sideways to me. berries, and also apparently of where they had here and there plucked a mouthful of a pr ulisr kind of moss, or cropped < a . ane little mushrooms. But the beasts themselves lijhl evident ly left the ridge, and we went 0:1. Vier a little while the vallev be- came so high that the large timber ceased, and there were only occasional groves of spindling evergreens. Be yond the edge of the big timber was a large boggy tract, studded with little pools: and here again we found plenty of caribou tracks. A caribou has an enormous foot, bigger than a cow's, and admirably adapted for traveling over snow or bogs; hence they can pass through places where the long slender hoofs of moose or deer, or the round hoofs of elk, would let their owners sink at once; and they are very difficult to kill by following on snow shoes—a method much In vogue among the brutal game butchers for slaughter tains. The lake itself, when we reach ed it, stretched straight away like a great fiord, a hundred miles long and about three in breadth. The frowning and rugged Selkirks came down sheer to the water's edge. So straight were the rock walls that it was difficult for us to land with our batteau, save at the places where the rapid mountain torrents entered the lake. We had come down from a week's fruitless hunting in the mountains; a week of exee:-\ iv • toil, in a country where we saw 110 gaiae—for in our ig norance we had wasted time, not go ing straight back to the high ranges, from which the game had not yet de scended. After three or four days of rest, and of feasting on trout —a wel come relief to the nonoton.v of frying pan bread mid coarsey salt pork—we were ready for another trial; and early one morning we made the start. Hav ing to pack everything for a fortnight's use 011 our backs, through an excess ively rough country we of course traveled as light as possible, leaving almost all we had with the tent and boat. We walked iu single tile, as is nec essary in thick woods. The white hunter led. and I followed, each with rifle on shoufder and pack on back. Animal, the Indian, pigeon toed along behind, carrying his pack, uot as we did ours, but by help of a forehead band, which he sometimes shifted across his breast. The traveling through the tangled, brush choked for est, and along the bowlder strewn and precipitous mountain sides, was incon ceivably rough and difficult. An hour or two before sunset we were traveling, as usual, in Indian file, beside the stream, through an open wood of great hemlock trees. There was no breeze, and we made no sound as we marched, for our feet sunk noiselessly into the deep moss. Suddenly the hunter, who was lead ing, dropped down in his tracks, point ing upward; and some fifty feet be yond i saw the hca4 and shoulders of a bear as he rose to make a sweep at some berries. He was in :i hollow where a tall, rank, prickly plant, with broad leaves, grew luxuriantly; and he was gathering its red berries, rising on his hind legs and sweeping them down into his mouth with bis paw, and was much too intent on.his work to notice us, for his head was pointed the other way. The moment lie rose again I tired, meaning to shoot through the shoulders, but instead, in the hur ry, taking him in the neck. Down he went, but whether hurt or not we could not see, for the second he was 011 all fours he was no longer visible. It a the r to my surprise he uttered no sound—for- bear when hit or when charging often make a great noise—so I raced toward the edge of the hollow, tiie hunter close behind me, while Ani mal danced about in the rear, very much excited, as Indians always are in the presence of big game. The in stant we reached the hollow and look ed down into it from the low bank on which we stood we saw by the sway ing of the tall plants that the bear was coming our way. The hunter was standing some ten feet distant, a hem lock trunk being between us; and the next moment the bear sprang clean up the bank the other side of the hem lock, and almost within arm's length of my companion, i do not think lie had intended to charge; he was prob ably confused by the bullet through his neck, and had by chance blundered out of the hollow in our direction; but when he saw the hunter so close he turned for lfim, his hair bristling and his teeth showing. The man had no cartridge in his weapon, and with his pack on could not have used it any how; and for a moment it looked as if he stood a fair chance of being hurt. As the beast sprang out of the hollow lie poised for a second on the edge of the bank to recover his balance, giving me a beautiful shot, as he stood side ways to me; the bullet struck between the eye and ear, and he fell as if hit with a. pole axe. Our prize was a large black bear, with two curious brown streaks down his back, one on each side the spine. Wo skinned him and camped by tie carcass, as ii was growing late. To \ take the chill off the evening air we ' built a huge fire, the logs roaring and | crackling. To one side of it we made j our beds —of balsam and hemlock boughs; we did not build a brush lean to, because the night seemed likely to be clear. Then we s j. v.! on nr lex-: tea, try Im s^-j>■'n hreid. nnd quanti ties of !"»•• ••• <l, fried or ron-i-vd— and !v • *. cry good i- t::sted ;v;|v | In;? the more helpless animals. Spread- I ing out his ureal hoofs, and bending j his legs till lie walks almost, on the 1 joints, a i .ribou will travel swiftly over a ■ :i <i:.'ough wliieli a u.oose breaku at c.eiv stride, or through i! ep snow in which a ileer cannot flounder fifty yards. I'svally he trots; but when pres « <i he \ ill spring awkward ly along, leaving tracks in the snow almost exactly like magnified imprints of those of a great rabbit, the long marks of the two hind legs forming an angle with each other, while the forefeet make a large point almost be tween. The caribou had wandered all over the bogs and through the shallow pools, but evidently only at night or In the dusk, l:en feeding or in coming to drink: and we again went on. Soon the timber disappeared almost en tirely, and thick brushwood took Its place; we were in a high, bare alpine valley, the snow lying in drifts along the sides. In places there had been enormous rock-slides, entirely filling up the bottom, so that for a quarter of 11 The hunter irouchal, dinvn, while 1 run noixrlcsul n for wit rtl. a mile at a stretch the stream ran un derground. la the rock masses of this alpine valley we, as usual, saw many conies and hoary woodchucks. The caribou trails had ceased, and it was evident that the beasts were not ahead of us in the barren, treeless recesses between the mountains of rock and snow; and we turned back down the valley, crossing over to the opposite or south side of the stream. We had already eaten our scanty lunch, for it was afternoon. For sev eral miles of hard walking, through thicket, marsh, and rock-slide, we saw no traces of the game. Then wC reached the forest, which soon widen ed out, and crept up the mountain sides; and we came to whore another stream entered the one we were follow ing. ,\ high, steep shoulder betwei the two valives was covered with an open growth of great hemlock timber, and in this we again found the trails and beds plentiful. There was no breeze, and after beating through the forest nearly to its upper edge, we be gan togo down ihe ridge, or point of the shoulder. The comparative free dom from brushwood made it easy to walk without noise, and we descended the steep incline with the utmost care, scanning every object, and using every caution not to slip on the hemlock needles, nor to strike a stone or break a stick with our feet. The sign was very fresh, and when still half a mile or so from the bottrAn we at last came on three bull caribou. Instantly the hunter crouched down, while Iran noiselessly forward he hind the shelter of a big hemlock trunk until within fifty yards of the grazing and unconscious quarry. The; were feeding with their heads up-hil but so greedily that they had not sec us; and they were rather difficult t see themselves, for their bodies ha monized well in color with the brow tree-trunks and lichen-covered bov ders. * The largest, a big bull with a go> but by no means extraordinary her was nearest. As he stood fronting l with ills head down I tired into ) neck, breaking the bone, and he tu ed a tremendous back somefsa The other two halted a second in st ned terror; then one, a yearling, n ed past us up the valley down w' we had come, while the other, a 1 bull with small antlers, crossed i in front of me, at a canter, his i thrust out, his head —so «>ot looking compared to the delicate lines of an elk':'—turned towards Ilis movements seemed clumsy awkward, utterly unlike those deer; but he ban Tied his great ! cleverly enon;:!' id broke In headlong, rattling gallop as he down the hillside, crashing tii the saplings and leaping ove fallen logs. There was a spur a beyond, and up this he went swinging trot, halting when he r< the top, and turning to look once more. He was only a h yards away; and though I had tended to shoot him (for his he nnt good), tlie temptation wa and I was glad when, in anotl ond. the stupid heart turned ar went o'* v < valle at a i run. .7 J- ■ - "■ l
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