HUNTING W^l THE jf BY \ \ J THEODORE ROOSEVELT / ICopyrlght, i v :3. !• O. p. Putnam'B Sons. Published u:i ■■■>■ vi:. : lent with G. I' Putnam's Sons, N* w Yurk and t.ondon.J ii 1P I have never I known wolves to attack' I I a mail, .vet in the wilder, port ion of the far North «||§Ss|?j west 1 have heard thejn come around < amj> very dose. growling so sav agely as to make one almost reluctant to leave the eaini> tire and go out into the darkness unarmed. Once 1 was camped in (lie fall near a lonely little lake in the mountains, by the edge of quite a broad stream. Soon after night fall three' or four wolves came around camp and kept me awake by their sin ister and dismal howling. Two or tlire' times they came so close to the tire that I could hear them snap theli jaws and growl, and at one time 1 pos Itlvely thought that they intended ti try to get into camp, so excited wert they by the smell of the fresh meat After a while I hey stopped howling and then all was silent for an hour ot so. I let the fire go out and was turn lng into bed when I suddenly heard some animal of considerable size coin* down to the stream nearly opposite me find begin to splash across, first wading, then swimming. It was pitch dark, and I could not possibly see, but I felt sure It was a wolf. However after coining half-way over it changed its mind and swam back to the oppo site bank; nor did I see or hear any thing more of the night marauders. Five or six times on the plains or or my ranch I have had shots at wolves always obtained by accident and al ways, I regret to say. missed, often the wolf when seen was running at full speed for cover, or else was so far off that though motionless' my shots went wide of it. But once have 1 with my own rifle killed a wolf, and this was while travelling with a pack train in the mountains. We had been mak ing considerable noise, and I never un derstood how an animal so wary per mitted our near approach. He did nevertheless, and just as we came to little stream which we were to ford saw him get on a dead log some lirty yards distant and walk slowly .J with his eyes turned toward us. The first shot smashed his shoulders and brought him down. The wolf is one of the animals which can only be hunted successfully with dogs. Most dogs, however, do not take at all kindly to the pursuit. A wolf Is a terrible fighter. He will decimate a pack of hounds by rabid snaps with his giant jaws while suffering little damage himself; nor are the ordinary big dogs, supposed to be fighting dogs, able to tackle him without special training. I have known one wolf to kill a bulldog which had rushed at it with a single snap. The true way to kill wolves, how ever, is to hunt them with greyhounds on the great plains. Nothing more ex citing than this sport can possibly be Imagined. It is not always necessary that the greyhounds should be of abso lutely pure blood. Prize-winning dogs of high pedigree often [trove useless for the purposes. Once I had the good fortune to wit ness a very exciting hunt of this char acter among the foot-hills of the north ern Itockies. I was staying at the house of a friendly cowman, whom I will call Judge Yancy Stump. He was The worryhiii. ijrmolinij and marling' a i rc terrific. at daggers drawn with Lis nearest; neighbor, a cross-grained mountain! farmer, who may bo known as old man ; Prindie. There was one point, how-; ever, on which the two came together. They were exceedingly fond of hunt ing with hounds. The Judge had three " four track-hounds, and four of what "•lied swlft-liounds, the latter in-j one pure-bred greyhound bitch Jerful speed and temper, a dun c<- i yelping animal which was a cross between a greyhonui . -il a , hound, and two others t.iat. \ crosses between a greyhound ,t wire-haired Scotch deer-hound. 1 U man Priudie's contribution to the pack consisted of two immense brindled mongrels of great strength and fero ; eious temper. As I was very anxious to see a wolf hunt the Judge volunteerd to get one up, and asked old man I'rindle to as sist, for the sake of his two big fight ing dogs; though the very names of the latter, General (.rant and Old Abe, were gall and wormwood to the un reconstructed soul of the Judge. Still they were the only dogs anywhere around capable of tackling a savage timber wolf, and without their aid E the Judge's own high-spirited animals iran a serious risk of injury, for they were altogether too game to let any beast escape without a struggle. Luck favored us. Two wolves bad killed a calf and dragged it into a long patch of dense brush where there was r a little spring, the whole furnishing ad mirable cover for any wild beast. Ear -1 l.v in the morning we started on hor.se < back for this bit of cover, which was ? some three miles off. The party eon t slsted of the Judge, old man I'rindle. a l cowboy, myself, and the dogs. The t judge and I carried our rifles and the t cowboy his revolver, but old man Prin -1 die had nothing but a heavy whip, for he swore, with many oaths, that no one should interfere with his big dogs, for by themselves they would surely i "make the wolf feel sicker than a stuck hog." Our shaggy ponies rack ed along at a five-mile gait over the I dewy prairie grass. The two big dogs t trotted behind their master, grim and : ferocious. The track-hounds were tied ■ in couples, and the beautiful grey i hounds loped lightly and gracefully • alongside the horses. The country was i fine. A mile to our right a small plains river wound in long curves between banks fringed with eottonwoods. Two • or three miles to our left the foot-hills rose sheer and bare, with clumps of ; black pine and cedar in their gorges. I We rode over gently rolling prairie, with here and there patches of brush at the bottoms of the slopes around the dry watercourses. ' At last we reached a somewhat deep er valley, in which the wolves were i harbored. Wolves lie close in the day i time and will not leave cover if they i can help it; and as they had both food i and water within we knew il was • most unlikely that this couple would 1 be gone. The valley was a couple of hundred yards broad and three or four times as long, filled with a growth of i ash and dwarf elm and cedar, thorny 1 underbrush choking the spaces be -1 tween. Posting tire cowboy, to whom ' he gave bis rifle, with two greyhounds on one side of the upper end, and old ' man I'rindle with two others on the '< opposite side, while I was left at the lower end to guard against the possi bility of the wolves breaking back, the Judge himself rode into the thicket near me and loosened the track-hounds : to let them find the wolves' trail. The 1 big dogs also were uncoupled and al lowed togo in with the hounds. Their power of scent was very poor, but they were sure to be guided aright by the baying of the hounds, and their pres ence would give confidence to the lat ter and make them ready to rout the 1 wolves out of the thicket, which they would probably have shrunk from do ing alone. There was a moment's pause of expectation after the Judge entered the thicket with his hounds. Wo sat motionless on our horses, eagerly looking through the keen fresh morning air. Then a clamorous baying from the thicket in which both the horseman and dogs had disappeared showed that the hounds had struck the trail of their quarry and were run ning on a hot scent. For a couple of minutes we could not lie quite certain which way the game was going to break. The hounds ran zigzag through fhe brush, as we could tell by their baying, and once some yelping and a great row showed that they had come rather closer than they had expected upon at least; one of the wolves. In another minute, however, the lat ter found it too hot for them and bolted from the thicket. My first no tice of this was seeing the cowboy, who was standing by the side of his horse, suddenly throw up his rifle and fire, while the greyhounds who had been springing high in the air, half maddened by the clamor in the thicket below, for a moment dashed off the wrong way, confused by the report of the gun. I rode for all I was worth , to where the cowboy stood, and in - | stantly caught a glimpse of two j wolves, grizzled-gray and brown, which having been turned by his shot had started straight over the hill ! across the plain toward the mountains | three miles away. As soon as I saw 1 them I saw also that the rearmost of ' the couple had been hit somewhere in ; the body and was lagging behind, tin.' blood running from its flanks, while the two greyhounds were racing after | it; and at the same moment the track liounds and the big dogs burst out of the thicket, yelling savagely as they struck the bloody trail. The wolf was hard hit, and staggered as he ran. He did not have a hundred yards' sturt CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, OCTOBER i. <QOB of the dogs, and in less than a mtnut one of the greyhounds ranged up anc passed him with a savage snap thai brought him to; and before he eoult recover the whole pa<?k rushed at him Weakened a.< he was he could uiak< 110 effective light against so many foes and indeed had a chance for but on* or two rapid snaps before he was thrown down and completely covered by the bodies <.f his enemies. Vol witl one of these.' snaps he did damage, as a shrill yell told, and in a second at over-ra.-h track-houml cam:' out of tin struggle with a deep gash across hi: shoulder.-. The worrying, growling and snarling ■were terrific, but in i minute the heaving mass grew motion loss and the dogs drew off, save out or two that still continued to worn the dead wolf as it lay stark and wtil' with glazed eyes and rumpled fur. No sooner were we satisfied that i was dead fhan the Judge, with cheers and oaths and crackings of his whip urged the dogs after the other wolf The two greyhounds that had beet with old man I'rlndle had fortunately not been able to see the wolves whet they first broke from the cover, and never saw the wounded wolf at all starting off at full speed after the un wounded one the instant lie topped the crest of the hill. lie had taken advan tage of a slight hollow and turned, and now the chase was crossing us half a mile away. With whip and spur we flew towards them. Our two greyhounds stretching out in front and leaving us 112 s. He rose on hi* hind leyx like a wrestler. as if wo were standing still, the track hounds and big dogs running after tlicui just ahead of the horses. Fortu nately the wolf plunged for a moment into a little brush.v hollow and again doubled back, and this gave us a chance to see the end of the chase from nearby. The Iwo greyhounds which had first taken up the pursuit were then but a short distance behind. Nearer they crept until they were within ten yards, and then with a tre mendous race the little bitch ran past him and inflicted a vicious bite in the big beast's ham. lie whirled around like a top and his jaws clashed like those of a sprung bear-trap, but <iuiek though lie was she was quicker and just cleared his savage rush. In an other moment he resumed his flight at full speed, a speed which only that of the greyhounds exceeded; but almost Immediately the second greyhound ranged alongside, and though lie was not able to bite, because the wolf kept running with its head turned around threatening liini, yet by his feints he delayed the beast's flight so that in a moment or two the remaining couple of swift hounds arrived on tho scene. For a moment the wolf and all four dogs galloped along in a bunch; then one of the greyhounds, watching his chance, pinned the beast cleverly by the hock and threw litin completely over. The other jumped on it in an in stant; but rising by main strength the wolf shook himself free, catching one dog by the ear and tearing it half off. Then lie sat down on his haunches and the greyhounds ranged themselves around him some twenty yards off, forming a ring which forbade his re treat, though they themselves did not dare touch him. However, the end was at hand. In another moment Old Abe and General Grant came running up at headlong speed and smashed into the wolf like a couple of battering rams. lie rose on his hind-legs like a wrestler as they came at him, the greyhounds also rising and bouncing up and down like rubber balls. I could just see the wolf and the first big dog locked together, as the second one made good his throat-hold. In another moment over all three tumbled, while the greyhounds and one or two of the track-hounds jumped into take part in the killing. The big dogs more than occupied the wolf's attention and took all the punishing, while in a trice 0110 of the greyhounds, having seized him by the hind-leg, stretched him out, and the others were biting his undefended belly. The snarling and yelling of the worry made a noise so fiendish that it was fairly bloodcurdling; then it grad ually died down, and the second wolf lay limp on the plain, killed by the dogs unassisted. This wolf was rather heavier and decidedly taller than either of the big dogs, with more sinewy l'eet and longer fangs. I HUNTING lh \ Lsk TflE / GRIZZLY \ /3 J av \ / THEODORE ROOSEVELT tCopyrtfrht. ISK".. by CI. P. Putnnm's Sons. Published under arrangement with G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York and London.] <)! l some days after our I Sj B arrival 011 the Bighorn I H we did not come hi HI J acro.-s any grizzly. Although it was still earlj in September, the weather was cool aud pleasant, the nights being frost; and every two or three days there was a flurry of light snow, which rendered the labor of tracking much more easy. Indeed, throughout our stay on the mountains, the peaks were snow capped almost all the time. Our fare was excellent, consisting of elk veni son, niouuta.ii grouse, and small trout; the last caught in one of the beautiful little lakes that lay almost up by tim ber line. There were plenty of black tail deer in the woods, and we came across a number of bands of cow and '•alf elk. or of young bulls; but after several days fcunting, we were still without any head worth taking home, and had seen no signs of grizzly, which was the game we were espe cially anxious to kill. One day I r .iinrtarani. .jiffs ~-%K We sat at 111 to wait for his approach. reached camp early In the afternoon, and waited a couple of hours before Merrifleld putin an appearance. At last I heard a shout—the familiar long drawn Eikoh-h-li of the cattle-men— and he came in sight galloping at speed down an open glade, and wav ing his hat, evidently having had good luck; and when lie reined in his small, wiry, cow-pony, we saw that lie had packed behind his saddle the fine, glossy pelt of a black bear. Better still, he announced that ho had been off about ten miles to a perfect tangle of ravines and valleys where bear sign was very thick; and not of black bear either, but grizzly. Merrifleld's tale made me decide to shift camp at once, and go over to the spot where the boar-tracks were so plenty. Next morning we were off, and by noon pitched camp by a clear brook, in a valley with steep, wooded sides, but with good feed for the horses in the open bottom. We rigged the canvas wagon sheet into a small tent, sheltered by the trees from tho wind, and piled great pine logs near by where we wished to place tho fire; for a night camp in the sharp fall weather is cold and dreary unless there is a roaring blaze of flame in front of the tent. That afternoon wo again went out, and I shot a fine bull elk. I came home alone toward nightfall, walking through a reach of burnt forest, where there was nothing but charred tree trunks and black mould. When near ly through it I came across the huge, half-human footprints of a great grizzly, which must have passed by within a few minutes. It gave me rather an eerie feeling in the silent, lonely woods, to see the unmistakable proofs that I was in tho home of the mighty lord of tho wilderness. I fol lowed the tracks in the fading twi light until it became too dark to see iliem any longer, and then shouldered my rifle and walked back to camp. That evening we almost had a visit from one of the animals Ave were aft er. Several times we had hoard at night the musical calling of the bull ilk. This particular night, when we wore in bed and the fire was smoulder ing, we were roused by a ruder noise a kind of grunting or roaring whine, answered by tho frightened snorts of the ponies. It was a bear which had evidently not seen the fire, as it came from behind the bank, and had prob ably been attracted by the smell of the horses. After it made out what we were it stayed round a short while, again uttered Its peculiar roaring grunt, and went off; we had seized our rifles and had run out into the woods, but in the darkness could see nothing; Indeed it was rather lucky we did not stumble across the hear, as he could have made short work of us when we were at such a disadvantage. Next day we went oft' on a long tramp through the woods and along the sides of the canyons. There were plenty of berry hushes growing in clusters; and all around these there were fresh tracks of hear. But the grizzly is also a flesh-eater, and has a great liking for carrion. On visiting tho place where Merrifleld had killed the black bear, we found that the griz zlies lind been there before us, aud had utterly devoured the carcass, with can nibal relish. Hardly a scrap was left, and we turned our steps toward where lay the bull elk I had killed. It was quite late in the afternoon when we reached the place. A grizzly had evi dently been at the carcass during the preceding night, for his great foot prints were in the ground all around It, anil the carcass itself was gnawed and torn, and partially covered with earth and leaves—for the grizzly has a curious habit of burying all of his prey that lie does not at the moment need. A great many ravens had been feeding on the body, and they wheeled about over the tree tops above us, ut tering their barking croaks. The forest was composed mainly of what are called ridge-pole pines, which grow close together, and do not brancn out until the steins are thirty or forty feet from the ground. Beneath these trees we w.ilked over a carpet of pine needles, upon which our moccaslued feet made no sound. The woods seemed vast and lonely, and their si lence was broken now and then by the strange noises always to be heard in the great forests, and which seem to mark the sad and everlasting unrest of the wilderness. We climbed up along the trunk of a dead tree which had toppled over until its upper branches struck in the limb crotch of another, that thus supported it at an angle half-way in its fall. When above the ground far enough to pre vent the bear's smelling us, we sat still to wait for his approach; until, in the gathering gloom, we could no longer see the sights of our rifles, and could but dimly make out the carcass of tho great elk. It was useless to wait longer; and we clambered down and stole out to the edge of the woods. The forest here covered one side of a steep, almost canyon-like ravine, whoso other side was bare except of rock and sage-brush. Once out from under the trees there was still plenty of light, although the sun had set, and we crossed over some fifty yards to the opposite hill-side, and crouched down under a bush to see if perchance some animal might not also leave the cover. To our right the ra vine sloped downward toward the val ley of the Bighorn River, and far on its- other side we could catch a glimpse of the great main chain of the Rockies, their snow peaks glinting crimson In the light of the set sun. Again we waited quietly in the growing dusk until the pine trees in our front blend ed into one dark, frowning mass. Wo saw nothing; but the wild creatures of tho forest had begun to stir abroad. The owls hooted dismally from the tops of tho tall trees, and two or three times a harsh wailing cry, probably the voice of some lynx or wolverine, arose from the depths of the woods. At last, as wo were rising to leave, we heard the sound of the breaking of a dead stick, from the spot where we knew the carcass lay. It was a sharp, sud den noise, perfectly distinct from the natural creaking and snapping of tho branches; just such a sound as would bo made by the tread of some heavy creature. "Old Ephraim" had come back to the carcass. A minute after ward, listening with strained ears, we heard him brush by some dry twigs. It was entirely too dark togo in after him; but we made up our minds that on the morrow he should be ours. Early next morning we were over at the elk carcass, and, as we expected, found that the bear had eaten his fill at it during the night. Ills tracks showed him to be an immense fellow, and were so fresh that we doubted if he had left long before wo arrived; and we made up our minds to follow him up and try to find his lair. The bears that lived 0:1 these mountains had evi dently been little disturbed; indeed, the Indians aud most of the white hunters are rather chary of meddling with "Old Ephraim," as the mountain men style the grizzly, unless they get him at a disadvantage; for the sport is fraught with some danger and but small profit. The bears thus seemed to have very little fear of harm, and we thought It likely that the bed of the one who had fed on the elk would not be far away. My companion was a skilful tracker, and we took up the trail at once. For some distance it led over the soft, yielding carpet of moss and pine nee dles, and the footprints were quite easily made out, although we could follow them but slowly; for we had. of course, to keep a sharp look-out ahead and around us as we walked noiselessly on in the sombre half-light always prevailing under the great pine trees, through whose thickly interlac ing brandies stray but few beams of / light, no matter how bright the su: may be outside. We made no souni ourselves, and every little suddei noise sent u thrill through me a I peered about with each sense on tli alert. After going a few hundred yards tli tracks turned off on a well-beaten pull made by the elk: the woods were ii many places cut up L>y these gain trails, which had often become as dis tinct as ordinary foot-paths. Tin beast's footprints were perfectly pin ii In the dust, and he had lumbered aloni up the path until near the middle <> tlie hillside, where Hie ground broki away and there were hollows am boulders. Here there had been a wind fall, and the dead trees lay anion the living, piled across one another Ii All directions; while between an' around them sprouted up a thiol growth of young rpruces and otlie evergreens. The trail turned off int< the tangled .thicket, within which i was almost certain we would find ou quarry. We could still follow th< tracks, by the slight scrapes of tin claws on the bark, or by the bent a:»c broken twigs; and we advanced witl noiseless caution, slowly climbing ove the dead tree trunks and upturne* stumps, and not letting a branch rustl< or catch on our clothes. When in tin middle of the thicket we crossed wha was almost a breastwork of fallet logs, and Merrlfleld, who was leading passed by the uprigiit stem of a grea pine. As soon as he was by it IK sank suddenly on one knee, turning half round, his face fairly aflame witl excitement; and as I strode past him with my rifle at the ready, there, no ten steps off, was the great bear, slow ly rising from his bed among tin young spruces. He had heard us but apparently hardly knew exactlj where or what we were, for he rearei up on his haunches sideways to us Then he saw us and dropped dowr again on nil fours, the shaggy hair or •lis neck and shoulders seeming tc bristle as he turned towards us. At he sank down oil his forefeet I hat raised the rifle; his head was bent slightly down, and when I saw th< top of the white bead fairly betweei his small, glittering, evil eyes, I pullet trigger. Half-rising up, the huge beasi fell over on his side in the deatl throes, the hall having gone into lib brain, striking as fairly between tin eyes as if the distance had been mras ured by a carpenter's rule. The whole thing was over in twenty seconds from the time I caught sight of the game; indeed, it was over sc quickly that the grizzly did not have time to show fight at ail or come a step toward us. He was a monstrous fellow, much larger than any I have seen since, whether alive or fero tight in dead by the hunters. As near as we could estimate (for of course we had nothing with which to weigh mort than very small portions) he must have weighed about twelve hundred pounds, and though this is not as large as some of his kind are said to grow in California, it Is yet a very unusual size for a bear. He was a good deal heavier than any of our horses; and it was with the* greatest difficulty that we were able to skin him. He must have been very old, his teeth and claws being all worn down and blunted; but nevertheless he had been living in plenty, for he was as fat as a prize hog, the layers 011 his back being a finger's length in thickness. He was still in the summer coat, his hair be ' There, not tin steps off, 101.1 tin: great hear. ing short, and in color a curious brin dled brown, somewhat like that of cer tain bulldogs; while all the bears we shot afterward had the long thick win ter fur, cinnamon or yellowish brown. By the way, the name of this bear has reference to its character and not to its color, and should, I suppose, be prop erly spelt grisly—in the sense of hor rible, exactly as we speak of a "grisly spectre"—and not grizzly; but perhaps the latter way of spelling it Is too well established to he now changed. "I see." said Mrs. Starvem, "that a certain scientist claims we'll soon gel a palatable food from wood" — "Well," growled the cranky boarder "it seems impossible to get it out ol 'board.' "
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