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 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
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 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
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 Outdoor pastimes of an American hunter, 
 
 3 1924 012 115 113 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012115113 
 
OUTDOOR PASTIMES OF AN 
 AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
BOOKS BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 OUTDOOR PASTIMES OF AN AMERICAN HUNTER. 
 Illustrated. 8vo . . . JS.OO net. Postage extra 
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. lUustrated. 8to . . . 12.00 
 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS. lUustrated. 8vo . . $1.B0 
 
 THE ROOSEVELT BOOK. Selections from the Writ- 
 ings of Theodore Roosevelt. l6mo . BO cents net 
 
Ch/i.'(ri,//i/._ /WIS. /„, fiA '///yi/. _/V/,,-^/,,^-/i„ 
 
 — /^7-^--o-c;^L-<r-ue 
 
OUTDOOR PASTIMES 
 
 OF AN 
 
 AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 BY 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1905 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1893, 189s, 1897, 1904, BY 
 
 FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY THE 
 
 MACMILLAK COMPANY 
 
 COPYRIGHT, I90S, BY 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 Published, October, 1905 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 f\^S'Hl^ 
 
TO 
 
 JOHN BURROUGHS 
 
 Dear Com John : — Every lover of outdoor life must feel 
 a sense of affectionate obligation to you. Your writings appeal 
 to all who care for the life of the woods and the fields, whether 
 their tastes keep them in the homely, pleasant farm country or 
 lead them into the wilderness. It is a good thing for our peo- 
 ple that you should have lived ; and surely no man can wish 
 to have more said of him, 
 
 I wish to express my hearty appreciation of your warfare 
 against the sham nature-writers — those whom you have called 
 " the yellow journalists of the woods." From the days of iEsop 
 to the days of Reinecke Fuchs, and from the days of Reinecke 
 Fuchs to the present time, there has been a distinct and attrac- 
 tive place in literature for those who write avowed fiction in 
 which the heroes are animals with human or semi-human attri- 
 butes. This fiction serves a useful purpose in many ways, even 
 in the way of encouraging people to take the right view of out- 
 door life and outdoor creatures ; but it is unpardonable for any 
 observer of nature to write fiction and then publish it as truth, 
 and he who exposes and wars against such action is entitled to 
 respect and support. You in your own person have illustrated 
 what can be done by the lover of nature who has trained him- 
 self to keen observation, who describes accurately what is thus 
 observed, and who, finally, possesses the additional gift of writ- 
 ing with charm and interest. 
 
 You were with me on one of the trips described in this 
 volume, and I trust that to look over it will recall the pleasant 
 days we spent together. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, 
 
 The White House, October 2, 1905. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 With the Cougar Hounds i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 A Colorado Bear Hunt 68 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Wolf-Coursing . . lOO 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Hunting in the Cattle Country; The Prongbuck 133 
 
 CHAPTER V • 
 
 A Shot at a Mountain Sheep 181 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 The Whitetail Deer ..193 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Mule-Deer or Rocky Mountain Blacktail . 224 
 
 vii 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Wapiti or Round-Horned Elk 256 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Wilderness Reserves ; The Yellowstone Park . . 287 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 Books on Big Game 318 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 At Home 339 
 
 APPENDIX 36 
 
 I 
 
 *^* Five of these Chapters have been recently written ; the others have 
 been revised and added to since they originally appeared in the publications of 
 the Boone and Crockett Club and in Mr. Caspar Whitney's " Deer Family." 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt Frontispiece 
 
 Photogravure from a photograph. facing 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GOFF AND THE PaCK. 5 
 
 Turk and a Bobcat in Top of a Pinyon 12 
 
 Bobcat in Pinyon 16 
 
 Starting for a Hunt 33 
 
 The First Cougar Killed 37 
 
 After the Fight 44 
 
 Cougar in a Tree 50 
 
 Barking Treed 63 
 
 Starting for Camp 68 
 
 At Dinner 74 
 
 The Pack Strikes the Fresh Bear Trail 77 
 
 Death of the Big Bear 83 
 
 Stewart and the Bobcat 86 
 
 The Pack Baying the Bear 88 
 
 A Doily Bear 91 
 
 The Big Bear 94 
 
 Starting Toward the Wolf Grounds loi 
 
 Greyhounds Renting after a Run 104 
 
 ix 
 
X ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 At the Tail of the Chuck Wagon io8 
 
 The Big D Cow Pony 112 
 
 Abernethy and Coyote 116 
 
 Abernethy Returns from the Hunt 125 
 
 Bony Moore and the Coyote 129 
 
 On the Little Missouri 138 
 
 Camping on the Antelope Grounds 156 
 
 Ranch Wagon Returning from Hunt 182 
 
 Elkhorn Ranch 216 
 
 The Ranch House 238 
 
 The Ranch Veranda 248 
 
 The Pack Train 264 
 
 Trophies of a Successful Hunt 277 
 
 Trophies in the White House Dining-Room 284 
 
 Antelope in the Streets of Gardiner 294 
 
 Blacktail Deer on Parade Ground 299 
 
 Elk in Snow 304 
 
 OoM John 309 
 
 Bears and Tourists 311 
 
 Grizzly Bear and Cook 314 
 
 The Bear and the Chambermaid 316 
 
 The North Room at Sagamore Hill 324 
 
 Renown 341 
 
 His First Buck 343 
 
 Algonquin and Skip 344 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS xi 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Peter Rabbit 346 
 
 The Guinea Pigs 348 
 
 Family Friends 350 
 
 JosiAH 354 
 
 Bleistein Jumping 356 
 
 *5|.*The cuts for Chapter I are from photographs taken by Philip B. 
 Stewart ; those in Chapter II, from photographs taken by Dr. Alexander 
 Lambert and Philip B. Stewart ; those in Chapter III, from photographs 
 taken by Dr. Lambert and Sloan Simpson ; those in Chapter IX were ob- 
 tained through Major Pitcher ; most of the others are from photographs taken 
 by me or by members of my family. 
 
OUTDOOR PASTIMES OF 
 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 
 
 In January, 1901, I started on a five weeks' cougar 
 hunt from Meeker in Northwest Colorado. My com- 
 panions were Mr. Philip B. Stewart and Dr. Gerald 
 Webb, of Colorado Springs ; Stewart was the captain of 
 the victorious Yale nine of '86. We reached Meeker on 
 January nth, after a forty mile drive from the railroad, 
 through the bitter winter weather; it was eighteen degrees 
 below zero when we started. At Meeker we met John 
 B. Goff, the hunter, and left town the next morning on 
 horseback for his ranch, our hunting beginning that same 
 afternoon, when after a brisk run our dogs treed a bobcat. 
 After a fortnight Stewart and Webb returned, Goff and 
 I staying out three weeks longer. We did not have to 
 camp out, thanks to the warm-hearted hospitality of the 
 proprietor and manager of the Keystone Ranch, and of 
 the Mathes Brothers and Judge Foreman, both of whose 
 ranches I also visited. The five weeks were spent hunt- 
 ing north of the White River, most of the time in the 
 neighborhood of Coyote Basin and Colorow Mountain. 
 In midwinter, hunting on horseback in the Rockies is 
 
2 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 apt to be cold work, but we were too warmly clad to 
 mind the weather. We wore heavy flannels, jackets lined 
 with sheepskin, caps which drew down entirely over our 
 ears, and on our feet heavy ordinary socks, german socks, 
 and overshoes. Galloping through the brush and among 
 the spikes of the dead cedars, meant that now and then 
 one got snagged; I found tough overalls better than 
 trousers ; and most of the time I did not need the jacket, 
 wearing my old buckskin shirt, which is to my mind a 
 particularly useful and comfortable garment. 
 
 It is a high, dry country, where the winters are usually 
 very cold, but the snow not under ordinary circumstances 
 very deep. It is wild and broken in character, the hills 
 and low mountains rising in sheer slopes, broken by cliffs 
 and riven by deeply cut and gloomy gorges and ravines. 
 The sage-brush grows everywhere upon the flats and 
 hillsides. Large open groves of pinyon and cedar are 
 scattered over the peaks, ridges, and table-lands. Tall 
 spruces cluster in the cold ravines. Cottonwoods grow 
 along the stream courses, and there are occasional patches 
 of scrub-oak and quaking asp. The entire country is 
 taken up with cattle ranges wherever it is possible to get 
 a sufficient water-supply, natural or artificial. Some 
 thirty miles to the east and north the mountains rise 
 hjigher, the evergreen forest becomes continuous, the snow 
 lies deep all through the winter, and such Northern 
 animals as the wolverene, lucivee, and snow-shoe rabbit 
 are found. This high country is the summer home of the 
 Colorado elk, now woefully diminished in numbers, and 
 of the Colorado blacktail deer, which are still very plenti- 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 3 
 
 ful, but which, unless better protected, will follow the elk 
 in the next few decades. I am happy to say that there are 
 now signs to show that the State is waking up to the need 
 of protecting both elk and deer; the few remaining 
 mountain sheep in Colorado are so successfully pro- 
 tected that they are said to be increasing in numbers. In 
 winter both elk and deer come down to the lower country, 
 through a part of which I made my hunting trip. We 
 did not come across any elk, but I have never, even in 
 the old days, seen blacktail more abundant than they were 
 in this region. The bucks had not lost their antlers, and 
 were generally, but not always, found in small troops 
 by themselves; the does, yearlings, and fawns — now al- 
 most yearlings themselves — ^went in bands. They seemed 
 tame, and we often passed close to them before they took 
 alarm. Of course at that season it was against the law 
 to kill them ; and even had this not been so none of our 
 party would have dreamed of molesting them. 
 
 Flocks of Alaskan long-spurs and of rosy finches 
 flitted around the ranch buildings ; but at that season there 
 was not very much small bird life. 
 
 The midwinter mountain landscape was very beauti- 
 ful, whether under the brilliant blue sky of the day, or 
 the starlight or glorious moonlight of the night, or when 
 under the dying sun the snowy peaks, and the light clouds 
 above, kindled into flame, and sank again to gold and 
 amber and sombre purple. After the snow-storms the 
 trees, almost hidden beneath the light, feathery masses, 
 gave a new and strange look to the mountains, as if 
 they were giant masses of frosted silver. Even the 
 
4 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 storms had a beauty of their own. The keen, cold air, 
 the wonderful scenery, and the interest and excitement of 
 the sport, made our veins thrill and beat with buoyant 
 life. 
 
 In cougar hunting the success of the hunter depends 
 absolutely upon his hounds. As hounds that are not per- 
 fectly trained are worse than useless, this means that 
 success depends absolutely upon the man who trains and 
 hunts the hounds. Gofif was one of the best hunters with 
 whom I have ever been out, and he had trained his pack 
 to a point of perfection for its special work which I have 
 never known another such pack to reach. With the ex- 
 ception of one new hound, which he had just purchased, 
 and of a puppy, which was being trained, not one of the 
 pack would look at a deer even when they were all as 
 keen as mustard, were not on a trail, and when the deer 
 got up but fifty yards or so from them. By the end of 
 the hunt both the new hound and the puppy were entirely 
 trustworthy; of course, Goff can only keep up his pack 
 by continually including new or young dogs with the 
 veterans. As cougar are only plentiful where deer are 
 infinitely more plentiful, the first requisite for a good 
 cougar hound is that it shall leave its natural prey, the 
 deer, entirely alone. Gofi's pack ran only bear, cougar, 
 and bobcat. Under no circumstances were they ever per- 
 mitted to follow elk, deer, antelope or, of course, rabbit. 
 Nor were they allowed to follow a wolf unless it was 
 wounded ; for in such a rough country they would at once 
 run out of sight and hearing, and moreover if they did 
 overtake the wolf they would be so scattered as to come 
 
GOFF AND THE PACK 
 From a photograph by Philip B. Stewart 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 5 
 
 up singly and probably be overcome one after another. 
 Being bold dogs they were always especially eager after 
 wolf and coyote, and when they came across the trail of 
 either, though they would not follow it, they would 
 usually challenge loudly. If the circumstances were such 
 that they could overtake the wolf in a body, it could make 
 no effective fight against them, no matter how large and 
 powerful. On the one or two occasions when this had 
 occurred, the pack had throttled " Isegrim " without get- 
 ting a scratch. 
 
 As the dogs did all the work, we naturally became 
 extremely interested in them, and rapidly grew to know 
 the voice, peculiarities, and special abilities of each. 
 There were eight hounds and four fighting dogs. The 
 hounds were of the ordinary Eastern type, used from the 
 Adirondacks to the Mississippi and the Gulf in the chase 
 of deer and fox. Six of them were black and tan and 
 two were mottled. They differed widely in size and 
 voice. The biggest, and, on the whole, the most useful, 
 was Jim, a very fast, powerful, and true dog with a great 
 voice. When the animal was treed or bayed, Jim was 
 especially useful because he never stopped barking; and 
 we could only find the hounds, when at bay, by listening 
 for the sound of their voices. Among the cliffs and preci- 
 pices the pack usually ran out of sight and hearing if 
 the chase lasted any length of time. Their business was 
 to bring the quarry to bay, or put it up a tree, and then 
 to stay with it and make a noise until the hunters came 
 up. During this hunt there were two or three occasions 
 when they had a cougar up a tree for at least three hours 
 
6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 before we arrived, and on several occasions Goff had 
 known them to keep a cougar up a tree overnight and 
 to be still barking around the tree when the hunters at 
 last found them the following morning. Jim always 
 did his share of the killing, being a formidable fighter, 
 though too wary to take hold until one of the professional 
 fighting dogs had seized. He was a great bully with the 
 other dogs, robbing them of their food, and yielding only 
 to Turk. He possessed great endurance, and very stout 
 feet. 
 
 On the whole the most useful dog next to Jim was 
 old Boxer. Age had made Boxer slow, and in addition 
 to this, the first cougar we tackled bit him through one 
 hind leg, so that for the remainder of the trip he went 
 on three legs, or, as Goff put it, " packed one leg " ; but 
 this seemed not to interfere with his appetite, his en- 
 durance, or his desire for the chase. Of all the dogs he 
 was the best to puzzle out a cold trail on a bare hill- 
 side, or in any difficult place. He hardly paid any heed 
 to the others, always insisting upon working out the trail 
 for himself, and he never gave up. Of course, the dogs 
 were much more apt to come upon the cold than upon 
 the fresh trail of a cougar, and it was often necessary 
 for them to spend several hours in working out a track 
 which was at least two days old. Both Boxer and Jim 
 had enormous appetites. Boxer was a small dog and 
 Jim a very large one, and as the relations of the pack 
 among themselves were those of brutal wild-beast selfish- 
 ness. Boxer had to eat very quickly if he expected to get 
 anything when Jim was around. He never ventured to 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 7 
 
 fight Jim, but in deep-toned voice appealed to heaven 
 against the unrighteousness with which he was treated} 
 and time and again such appeal caused me to sally out 
 and rescue his dinner from Jim's highway robbery. 
 Once, when Boxer was given a biscuit, which he tried 
 to bolt whole, Jim simply took his entire head in his 
 jaws, and convinced him that he had his choice of sur- 
 rendering the biscuit, or sharing its passage down Jim's 
 capacious throat. Boxer promptly gave up the biscuit, 
 then lay on his back and wailed a protest to fate — his 
 voice being deep rather than loud, so that on the trail, 
 when heard at a distance, it sounded a little as if he 
 was croaking. After killing a cougar we usually cut up 
 the carcass and fed it to the dogs, if we did not expect 
 another chase that day. They devoured it eagerly. Boxer, 
 after his meal, always looking as if he had swallowed 
 a mattress. 
 
 Next in size to Jim was Tree'em. Tree'em was a 
 good dog, but I never considered him remarkable until 
 his feat on the last day of our hunt, to be afterward 
 related. He was not a very noisy dog, and when " bark- 
 ing treed " he had a meditative way of giving single 
 barks separated by intervals of several seconds, all the 
 time gazing stolidly up at the big, sinister cat which he 
 was baying. Early in the hunt, in the course of a fight 
 with one of the cougars, he received some injury to his 
 tail, which made it hang down like a piece of old rope. 
 Apparently it hurt him a good deal and we let him rest 
 for a fortnight. This put him in great spirits and made 
 him fat and strong, but only enabled him to recover 
 
8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 power over the root of the tail, while the tip hung down 
 as before ; it looked like a curved pump-handle when he 
 tried to carry it erect. 
 
 Lil and Nel were two very stanch and fast bitches, 
 the only two dogs that could keep up to Jim in a quick 
 burst. They had shrill voices. Their only failing was a 
 tendency to let the other members of the pack cow them so 
 that they did not get their full share of the food. It 
 was not a pack in which a slow or timid dog had much 
 chance for existence. They would all unite in the chase 
 and the fierce struggle which usually closed it; but the 
 instant the quarry was killed each dog resumed his nor- 
 mal attitude of greedy anger or greedy fear toward the 
 others. 
 
 Another bitch rejoiced in the not very appropriate 
 name of Pete. She was a most ardent huntress. In the 
 middle of our trip she gave birth to a litter of puppies, 
 but before they were two weeks old she would slip away 
 after us and join with the utmost ardor in the hunting 
 and fighting. Her brother Jimmie, although of the same 
 age (both were young), was not nearly as far advanced. 
 He would run well on a fresh trail, but a cold tra-il or a 
 long check always discouraged him and made him come 
 back to Goff. He was rapidly learning; a single beating 
 taught him to let deer alone. The remaining hound, 
 Bruno, had just been added to the pack. He showed ten- 
 dencies both to muteness and babbling, and at times, if he 
 thought himself unobserved, could not resist making a 
 sprint after a deer; but he occasionally rendered good 
 service. If Jim or Boxer gave tongue every member of 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 9 
 
 the pack ran to the sound; but not a dog paid any heed 
 to Jimmie or Bruno. Yet both ultimately became first- 
 class hounds. 
 
 The fighting dogs always trotted at the heels of the 
 horses, which had become entirely accustomed to them, 
 and made no objection when they literally rubbed against 
 their heels. The fighters never left us until we came to 
 where we could hear the hounds " barking treed," or 
 with their quarry at bay. Then they tore in a straight 
 line to the sound. They were the ones who were expected 
 to do the seizing and take the punishment, though the 
 minute they actually had hold of the cougar, the hounds 
 all piled on too, and did their share of the killing; but 
 the seizers fought the head while the hounds generally 
 took hold behind. All of them, fighters and hounds alike, 
 were exceedingly good-natured and affectionate with 
 their human friends, though short-tempered to a degree 
 with one another. The best of the fighters was old Turk, 
 who was by blood half hound and half " Siberian blood- 
 hound." Both his father and his mother were half-breeds 
 of the same strains, and both were famous fighters. 
 Once, when Gofif had wounded an enormous gray wolf 
 in the hind leg, the father had overtaken it and fought 
 it to a standstill. The two dogs together were an over- 
 match for any wolf. Turk had had a sister who was as 
 good as he was; but she had been killed the year before 
 by a cougar which bit her through the skull ; accidents 
 being, of course, frequent in the pack, for a big cougar 
 is an even more formidable opponent to dogs than a 
 wolf. Turk's head and body were seamed with scars. 
 
lo AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 He had lost his lower fangs, but he was still a most for- 
 midable dog. While we were at the Keystone Ranch 
 a big steer which had been driven in, got on the fight, 
 and the foreman, William Wilson, took Turk out to aid 
 him. At first Turk did not grasp what was expected of 
 him, because all the dogs were trained never to touch 
 anything domestic — at the different ranches where we 
 stopped the cats and kittens wandered about, perfectly 
 safe, in the midst of this hard-biting crew of bear and 
 cougar fighters. But when Turk at last realized that 
 he was expected to seize the steer, he did the business 
 with speed and thoroughness ; he not only threw the steer, 
 but would have killed it then and there had he not been, 
 with much difficulty, taken away. Three dogs like Turk, 
 in their prime and with their teeth intact, could, I be- 
 lieve, kill an ordinary female cougar, and could hold 
 even a big male so as to allow it to be killed with the 
 knife. 
 
 Next to Turk were two half-breeds between bull and 
 shepherd, named Tony and Baldy. They were exceed- 
 ingly game, knowing-looking little dogs, with a certain 
 alert swagger that reminded one of the walk of some 
 light-weight prize-fighters. In fights with cougars, 
 bears, and lynx, they too had been badly mauled and had 
 lost a good many of their teeth. Neither of the gallant 
 little fellows survived the trip. Their place was taken 
 by a white bulldog bitch. Queen, which we picked up 
 at the Keystone Ranch; a very affectionate and good- 
 humored dog, but, when her blood was aroused, a daunt- 
 less though rather stupid fighter. Unfortunately she did 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS ii 
 
 not seize by the head, taking hold of any part that was 
 nearest. 
 
 The pack had many interesting peculiarities, but none 
 more so than the fact that four of them climbed trees. 
 Only one of the hounds, little Jimmie, ever tried the feat; 
 but of the fighters, not only Tony and Baldy but big 
 Turk climbed every tree that gave them any chance. 
 The pinyons and cedars were low, multi-forked, and 
 usually sent off branches from near the ground. In con- 
 sequence the dogs could, by industrious effort, work their 
 way almost to the top. The photograph of Turk and the 
 bobcat in the pinyon (facing p. 12) shows them at an alti- 
 tude of about thirty feet above the ground. Now and 
 then a dog would lose his footing and come down with a 
 whack which sounded as if he must be disabled, but after 
 a growl and a shake he would start up the tree again. 
 They could not fight well while in a tree, and were often 
 scratched or knocked to the ground by a cougar; and 
 when the quarry was shot out of its perch and seized 
 by the expectant throng below, the dogs in the tree, yelp- 
 ing with eager excitement, dived iaeadlong down through 
 the branches, regardless of consequences. 
 
 The horses were stout, hardy, surefooted beasts, not 
 very fast, but able to climb like goats, and to endure an 
 immense amount of work. Goff and I each used two for 
 the trip. 
 
 The bear were all holed up for the winter, and so 
 our game was limited to cougars and bobcats. In the 
 books the bobcat is always called a lynx, which it of 
 course is ; but whenever a hunter or trapper speaks of a 
 
12 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 lynx (which he usually calls " link," feeling dimly that 
 the other pronunciation is a plural), he means a lucivee. 
 Bobcat is a good distinctive name, and it is one which 
 I think the book people might with advantage adopt; 
 for wild-cat, which is the name given to the small lynx 
 in the East, is already pre-empted by the true wild-cat 
 of Europe. Like all people of European descent who 
 have gone into strange lands, we Americans have christ- 
 ened our wild beasts with a fine disregard for their 
 specific and generic relations. We called the bison 
 " buffalo " as long as it existed, and we still call the big 
 stag an " elk," instead of using for it the excellent term 
 wapiti; on the other hand, to the true elk and the rein- 
 deer we gave the new names moose and caribou — ex- 
 cellent names, too, by the way. The prong buck is always 
 called antelope, though it is not an antelope at all; and 
 the white goat is not a goat ; while the distinctive name of 
 " bighorn " is rarely used for the mountain sheep. In 
 most cases, however, it is mere pedantry to try to upset 
 popular custom in such matters ; and where, as with the 
 bobcat, a perfectly good name is taken, it would be better 
 for scientific men to adopt it. I may add that in this 
 particular of nomenclature we are no worse sinners than 
 other people. The English in Ceylon, the English and 
 Dutch in South Africa, and the Spanish in South Amer- 
 ica, have all shown the same genius for misnaming beasts 
 and birds. 
 
 Bobcats were very numerous where we were hunting. 
 They fed chiefly upon the rabbits, which fairly swarmed; 
 mostly cotton-tails, but a few jacks. Contrary to the 
 
TURK AND A BOBCAT IN TOP OF A PINYON 
 From a photograph by Philip B. Stewart 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 13 
 
 popular belief, the winter is in many places a time of 
 plenty for carnivorous wild beasts. In this place, for 
 instance, the abundance of deer and rabbits made good 
 hunting for both cougar and bobcat, and all those we 
 killed were as fat as possible, and in consequence weighed 
 more than their inches promised. The bobcats are very 
 fond of prairie dogs, and haunt the dog towns as soon 
 as spring comes and the inhabitants emerge from their 
 hibernation. They sometimes pounce on higher game. 
 We came upon an eight months' fawn — ^very nearly a 
 yearling — ^which had been killed by a big male bobcat; 
 and Judge Foreman informed me that near his ranch, 
 a few years previously, an exceptionally large bobcat had 
 killed a yearling doe. Bobcats will also take lambs and 
 young pigs, and if the chance occurs will readily seize 
 their small kinsman, the house cat. 
 
 Bobcats are very fond of lurking round prairie-dog 
 towns as soon as the prairie dogs come out in spring. 
 In this part of Colorado, by the way, the prairie dogs 
 were of an entirely different species from the common 
 kind of the plains east of the Rockies. 
 
 We found that the bobcats sometimes made their lairs 
 along the rocky ledges or in holes in the cut banks, and 
 sometimes in thickets, prowling about during the night, 
 and now and then even during the day. We never chased 
 them unless the dogs happened to run across them by 
 accident when questing for cougar, or when we were re- 
 turning home after a day when we had failed to find 
 cougar. Usually the cat gave a good run, occasionally 
 throwing out the dogs by doubling or jack- knifing. Two 
 
14 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 or three times one of them gave us an hour's sharp trot- 
 ting, cantering, and galloping through the open cedar 
 and pinyon groves on the table-lands ; and the runs some- 
 times lasted for a much longer period when the dogs had 
 to go across ledges and through deep ravines. 
 
 On one of our runs a party of ravens fluttered along 
 from tree to tree beside us, making queer gurgling noises 
 and evidently aware that they might expect to reap a 
 reward from our hunting. Ravens, multitudes of mag- 
 pies, and golden and bald eagles were seen continually, 
 and all four flocked to any carcass which was left in the 
 open. The eagle and the raven are true birds of the 
 wilderness, and in a way their presence both height- 
 ened and relieved the iron desolation of the wintry 
 mountains. 
 
 Over half the cats we started escaped, getting into 
 caves or deep holes in washouts. In the other instances 
 they went up trees and were of course easily shot. Tony 
 and Baldy would bring them out of any hole into which 
 they themselves could get. After their loss, Lil, who was 
 a small hound, once went into a hole in a washout after 
 a cat. After awhile she stopped barking, though we 
 could still hear the cat growling. What had happened 
 to her we did not know. We spent a couple of hours 
 calling to her and trying to get her to come out, but she 
 neither came out nor answered, and, as sunset was ap- 
 proaching and the ranch was some miles off, we rode 
 back there, intending to return with spades in the morn- 
 ing. However, by breakfast we found that Lil had come 
 back. We supposed that she had got on the other side 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 15 
 
 of the cat and had been afraid or unable to attack it; so 
 that as Collins the cow-puncher, who was a Southerner, 
 phrased it, " she just naturally stayed in the hole " until 
 some time during the night the cat went out and she fol- 
 lowed. When once hunters and hounds have come into 
 the land, it is evident that the bobcats which take refuge 
 in caves have a far better chance of surviving than those 
 which make their lairs in the open and go up trees. But 
 trees are sure havens against their wilderness foes. Gofif 
 informed me that he once came in the snow to a place 
 where the tracks showed that some coyotes had put a 
 bobcat up a tree, and had finally abandoned the effort to 
 get at it. Any good fighting dog will kill a: bobcat; 
 hut an untrained dog, even of large size, will probably 
 fail, as the bobcat makes good use of both teeth and 
 claws. The cats we caught frequently left marks on some 
 of the pack. We found them very variable in size. My 
 two largest — ^both of course males — weighed respectively 
 thirty-one and thirty-nine pounds. The latter, Goff said, 
 was of exceptional size, and as large as any he had ever 
 killed. The full-grown females went down as low as 
 eighteen pounds, or even lower. 
 
 When the bobcats were in the treetops we could get 
 up very close. They looked like large malevolent pussies. 
 I once heard one of them squall defiance when the dogs 
 tried to get it out of a hole. Ordinarily they confined 
 themselves to a low growling. Stewart and Goff went up 
 the trees with their cameras whenever we got a bobcat 
 in a favorable position, and endeavored to take its photo- 
 graph. Sometimes they were very successful. Although 
 
1 6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 they were frequently within six feet of a cat, and occa- 
 sionally even poked it in order to make it change its posi- 
 tion, I never saw one make a motion to jump on them. 
 Two or three times on our approach the cat jumped from 
 the tree almost into the midst of the pack, but it was 
 so quick that it got off before they could seize it. They 
 invariably put it up another tree before it had gone any 
 distance. 
 
 Hunting the bobcat was only an incident. Our true 
 quarry was the cougar. I had long been anxious to make 
 a regular hunt after cougar in a country where the beasts 
 were plentiful and where we could follow them with 
 a good pack of hounds. Astonishingly little of a satis- 
 factory nature has been left on record about the cougar 
 by hunters, and in most places the chances for observa- 
 tion of the big cats steadily grow less. They have been 
 thinned out almost to the point of extermination through- 
 out the Eastern States. In the Rocky Mountain region 
 they are still plentiful in places, but are growing less 
 so; while on the contrary the wolf, which was extermi- 
 nated even more quickly in the East, in the West has 
 until recently been increasing in numbers. In north- 
 western Colorado a dozen years ago, cougars were far 
 more plentiful than wolves; whereas at the present day 
 the wolf is probably the more numerous. Nevertheless, 
 there are large areas, here and there among the Rockies, 
 in which cougars will be fairly plentiful for years to 
 come. 
 
 No American beast has been the subject of so much 
 loose writing or of such wild fables as the cougar. Even 
 
BOBCAT IN PINYON 
 From a photograph by Philip B. Stewart 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 17 
 
 its name is unsettled. In the Eastern States it is usually 
 called panther or painter; in the Western States, moun- 
 tain lion, or, toward the South, Mexican lion. The Span- 
 ish-speaking people usually call it simply lion. It is, 
 however, sometimes called cougar in the West and South- 
 west of our country, and in South America, puma. As 
 it is desirable where possible not to use a name that is 
 misleading and is already appropriated to some entirely 
 different animal, it is best to call it cougar. 
 
 The cougar is a very singular beast, shy and elusive 
 to an extraordinary degree, very cowardly and yet blood- 
 thirsty and ferocious, varying wonderfully in size, and 
 Subject, like many other beasts, to queer freaks of char- 
 acter in occasional individuals. This fact of individual 
 variation in size and temper is almost always ignored 
 in treating of the animal; whereas it ought never to be 
 left out of sight. 
 
 The average writer, and for the matter of thatj the 
 average hunter, where cougars are scarce, knows little 
 or nothing of them, and in describing them merely draws 
 upon the stock of well-worn myths which portray them 
 as terrible foes of man, as dropping on their prey from 
 trees where they have been lying in wait, etc., etc. Very 
 occasionally there appears an absolutely trustworthy ac- 
 count like that by Dr. Hart Merriam in his "Adirondack 
 Mammals." But many otherwise excellent writers are 
 wholly at sea in reference to the cougar. Thus one of 
 the best books on hunting in the far West in the old days 
 is by Colonel Dodge. Yet when Colonel Dodge came to 
 describe the cougar he actually treated of it as two species. 
 
1 8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 one of which, the mountain lion, he painted as a most 
 ferocious and dangerous opponent of man; while the 
 other, the panther, was described as an abject coward, 
 which would not even in the last resort defend itself 
 against man — the two of course being the same animal. 
 
 However, the wildest of all fables about the cougar 
 has been reserved not for hunter or popular writer, but 
 for a professed naturalist. In his charmingly written 
 book, " The Naturalist in La Plata," Mr. Hudson act- 
 ually describes the cougar as being friendly to man, dis- 
 interestedly adverse to harming him, and at the same 
 time an enemy of other large carnivores. Mr. Hudson 
 bases his opinion chiefly upon the assertions of the 
 Gauchos. The Gauchos, however, go one degree beyond 
 Mr. Hudson, calling the puma the " friend of Chris- 
 tians " ; whereas Mr. Hudson only ventures to attribute 
 to the beast humanitarian, not theological, preferences. 
 As a matter of fact, Mr. Hudson's belief in the cougar's 
 peculiar friendship for man, and peculiar enmity to other 
 large beasts of prey, has not one particle of foundation 
 in fact as regards at any rate the North American form — 
 and it is hardly to be supposed that the South American 
 form would alone develop such extraordinary traits. For 
 instance, Mr. Hudson says that the South American 
 puma when hunted will attack the dogs in preference to 
 the man. In North America he will fight the dog if 
 the dog is nearest, and if the man comes to close quarters 
 at the same time as the dog he will attack the man if 
 anything more readily, evidently recognizing in him his 
 chief opponent. He will often go up a tree for a single 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 19 
 
 dog. On Mr. Hudson's theory he must do this because 
 of his altruistic feeling toward the dog. In fact, Mr. 
 Hudson could make out a better case of philo-humanity 
 for the North American wolf than for the North Ameri- 
 can cougar. Equally absurd is it to talk, as Mr. Hudson 
 does, of the cougar as the especial enemy of other fero- 
 cious beasts. Mr. Hudson speaks of it as attacking and 
 conquering the jaguar. Of this I know nothing, but such 
 an extraordinary statement should be well fortified with 
 proofs; and if true it must mean that the jaguar is an 
 infinitely less formidable creature than it has been 
 painted. In support of his position Mr. Hudson alludes 
 to the stories about the cougar attacking the grizzly bear. 
 Here I am on ground that I do know. It is true that 
 an occasional old hunter asserts that the cougar does this, 
 but the old hunter who makes such an assertion also in- , 
 variably insists that the cougar is a ferocious and habitual 
 man-killer, and the two statements rest upon equally 
 slender foundations of fact. I have never yet heard of 
 a single authentic instance of a cougar interfering with 
 a full-grown big bear. It will kill bear cubs if it gets a 
 chance; but then so will the fox and the fisher, not to 
 speak of the wolf. In 1894, a cougar killed a colt on a 
 brushy river bottom a dozen miles below my ranch on the 
 Little Missouri. I went down to visit the carcass and 
 found that it had been taken possession of by a large 
 grizzly. Both I and the hunter who was with me were 
 very much interested in what had occurred, and after a 
 careful examination of the tracks we concluded that the 
 bear had arrived on the second night after the kill. He 
 
20 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 had feasted heartily on the remains, while the cougar, 
 whose tracks were evident here and there at a little dis- 
 tance from the carcass, had seemingly circled around it, 
 and had certainly not interfered with the bear, or even 
 ventured to approach him. Now, if a cougar would ever 
 have meddled with a large bear it would surely have 
 been on such an occasion as this. If very much pressed 
 by hunger, a large cougar will, if it gets the chance, kill 
 a wolf ; but this is only when other game has failed, and 
 under all ordinary circumstances neither meddles with 
 the other. When I was down in Texas, hunting peccaries 
 on the Nueces, I was in a country where both cougar and 
 jaguar were to be found; but no hunter had ever heard 
 of either molesting the other, though they were all of 
 the opinion that when the two met the cougar gave the 
 path to his spotted brother. Of course, it is never safe 
 to dogmatize about the unknown in zoology, or to gen- 
 eralize on insufficient evidence ; but as regards the North 
 American cougar there is not a particle of truth of any 
 kind, sort, or description in the statement that he is the 
 enemy of the larger carnivores, or the friend of man; 
 and if the South American cougar, which so strongly 
 resembles its Northern brother in its other habits, has de- 
 veloped on these two points the extraordinary peculiar- 
 ities of which Mr. Hudson speaks, full and adequate 
 proof should be forthcoming; and this proof is now 
 wholly wanting. 
 
 Fables aside, the cougar is a very interesting creature. 
 It is found from the cold, desolate plains of Patagonia 
 to north of the Canadian line, and lives alike among the 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 21 
 
 snow-clad peaks of the Andes and in the steaming forests 
 of the Amazon. Doubtless careful investigation will dis- 
 close several varying forms in an animal found over such 
 immense tracts of country and living under such utterly 
 diverse conditions. But in its essential habits and traits, 
 the big, slinking, nearly uni-colored cat seems to be much 
 the same everywhere, whether living in mountain, open 
 plain, or forest, under arctic cold or tropic heat. When 
 the settlements become thick, it retires to dense forest, 
 dark swamp or inaccessible mountain gorge, and moves 
 about only at night. In wilder regions it not infrequent- 
 ly roams during the day and ventures freely into the 
 open. Deer are its customary prey where they are 
 plentiful, bucks, does, and fawns being killed indiffer- 
 ently. Usually the deer is killed almost instantaneously, 
 but occasionally there is quite a scuffle, in which the cou- 
 gar may get bruised, though, as far as I know, never 
 seriously. It is also ,a dreaded enemy of sheep, pigs, 
 calves, and especially colts, and when pressed by hun- 
 ger a big male cougar will kill a full-grown horse or 
 cow, moose or wapiti. It is the special enemy of moun- 
 tain sheep. In 1886, while hunting white goats north 
 of Clarke's fork of the Columbia, in a region where cou- 
 gar were common, I found them preying as freely on 
 the goats as on the deer. It rarely catches antelope, but 
 is quick to seize rabbits, other small beasts, and even por- 
 cupines, as well as bobcats, coyotes and foxes. 
 
 No animal, not even the wolf, is so rarely seen or so 
 difficult to get without dogs. On the other hand, no other 
 wild beast of its size and power is so easy to kill by the aid 
 
22 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 of dogs. There are many contradictions in its character. 
 Like the American wolf, it is certainly very much afraid 
 of man ; yet it habitually follows the trail of the hunter or 
 solitary traveller, dogging his footsteps, itself always un- 
 seen. I have had this happen to me personally. When 
 hungry it will seize and carry off any dog; yet it will 
 sometimes go up a tree when pursued even by a single 
 small dog wholly unable to do it the least harm. It is 
 small wonder that the average frontier settler should 
 grow to regard almost with superstition the great furtive 
 cat which he never sees, but of whose presence he is ever 
 aware, and of whose prowess sinister proof is sometimes 
 afforded by the deaths not alone of his lesser stock, but 
 even of his milch cow or saddle horse. 
 
 The cougar is as large, as powerful, and as formidably 
 armed as the Indian panther, and quite as well able to 
 attack man; yet the instances of its having done so are 
 exceedingly rare. The vast majority of the tales to this 
 effect are undoubtedly inventions. But it is foolish to 
 deny that such attacks on human beings ever occur. 
 There are a number of authentic instances, the latest that 
 has come to my knowledge being related in the following 
 letter, of May 15, 1893, written to Dr. Merriam by Pro- 
 fessor W. H. Brewer, of Yale: " In 1880 I visited the 
 base of Mount Shasta, and stopped a day to renew the 
 memories of 1862, when I had climbed and measured this 
 mountain. Panthers were numerous and were so destruc- 
 tive to sheep that poisoning by strychnine was common. 
 A man living near who had (as a young hunter) gone up 
 Mount Shasta with us in '62, now married (1880) and 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 23 
 
 on a ranch, came to visit, me, with a little son five or six 
 years old. This boy when younger, but two or three years 
 old, if I recollect rightly, had been attacked by a pan- 
 ther. He was playing in the yard by the house when 
 a lean two-thirds grown panther came into the yard and 
 seized the child by the throat. The child screamed, and 
 alarmed the mother (who told me the story) . She seized 
 a broom and rushed out, while an old man at the house 
 seized the gun. The panther let go the child and was 
 shot. I saw the boy. He had the scars of the panther's 
 teeth in the cheek, and below on the under side of the 
 lower jaw, and just at the throat. This was the only case 
 that came to my knowledge at first hand of a panther at- 
 tacking a human being in that State, except one or two 
 cases where panthers, exasperated by wounds, had fought 
 with the hunters who had wounded them." This was a 
 young cougar, bold, stupid, and very hungry. Goff told 
 me of one similar case where a cougar stalked a young 
 girl, but was shot just before it was close enough to make 
 the final rush. As I have elsewhere related, I know of 
 two undoubted cases, one in Mississippi, one in Florida, 
 where a negro was attacked and killed by a cougar, while 
 alone in a swamp at night. But these occurred many 
 years ago. The instance related by Professor Brewer is 
 the only one I have come across happening in recent 
 years, in which the cougar actually seized a human being 
 with the purpose of making prey of it; though doubtless 
 others have occurred. I have never known the American 
 wolf actually to attack a human being from hunger or 
 to make prey of him; whereas the Old- World wolf, like 
 
24 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the Old-World leopard, undoubtedly sometimes turns 
 man-eater. 
 
 Even when hunted the cougar shows itself, as a rule, 
 an abject coward, not to be compared in courage and 
 prowess with the grizzly bear, and but little more dan- 
 gerous to man than is the wolf under similar circum- 
 stances. Without dogs it is usually a mere chance that 
 one is killed. Goflf has killed some 300 cougars during 
 the sixteen years he has been hunting in northwestern 
 Colorado, yet all but two of them were encountered while 
 he was with his pack; although this is in a region where 
 they were plentiful. When hunted with good dogs their 
 attention is so taken up with the pack that they have 
 little time to devote to men. When hunted without dogs 
 they never charge unless actually cornered, and, as a gen- 
 eral rule, not even then, unless the man chooses to come 
 right up to them. I knew of one Indian being killed 
 in 1887, and near my ranch a cowboy was mauled; but 
 in the first instance the cougar had been knocked down 
 and the Indian was bending over it when it revived; 
 and in the next instance, the cowboy literally came right 
 on top of the animal. Now, under such circumstances 
 either a bull elk or a blacktail buck will occasionally 
 fight; twice I have known of wounded wapiti regularly 
 charging, and one of my own cowboys, George Myer, 
 was very roughly handled by a blacktail buck which he 
 had wounded. In all his experience Goff says that save 
 when he approached one too close when it was cornered 
 by the dogs, he never but once had a cougar start to 
 charge him, and on that occasion it was promptly killed 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 25 
 
 by a bullet. Usually the cougar does not even charge 
 at the dogs beyond a few feet, confining itself to seizing 
 or striking any member of the pack which comes close 
 up ; although it will occasionally, when much irritated, 
 make a rapid dash and seize some bold assailant. While 
 I was on my hunt, one of Goflf's brothers lost a hound in 
 hunting a cougar; there were but two hounds, and the 
 cougar would not tree for them, finally seizing and kill- 
 ing one that came too near. At the same time a ranchman 
 not far off set his cattle dog on a cougar, which after a 
 short run turned and killed the dog. But time and again 
 cougars are brought to bay or treed by dogs powerless 
 to do them the slightest damage; and they usually meet 
 their death tamely when the hunter comes up. I have 
 had no personal experience either with the South Ameri- 
 can jaguar or the Old- World leopard or panther; but 
 these great spotted cats must be far more dangerous ad- 
 versaries than the cougar. 
 
 It is true, as I have said, that a cougar will follow 
 a man; but then a weasel will sometimes do the same 
 thing. Whatever the cougar's motive, it is certain that 
 in the immense majority of cases there is not the slightest 
 danger of his attacking the man he follows. Dr. Hart 
 Merriam informs me, however, that he is satisfied that 
 he came across one genuine instance of a cougar killing 
 a man whose tracks he had dogged. It cannot be too 
 often repeated, that we must never lose sight of the indi- 
 vidual variation in character and conduct among wild 
 beasts. A thousand times a cougar might follow a man 
 either not intending or not daring to attack him, while 
 
26 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 in the thousandth and first case it might be that the tem- 
 per of the beast and the conditions were such that the 
 attack would be made. 
 
 Other beasts show almost the same wide variation in 
 temper. Wolves, for instance, are normally exceedingly 
 wary of man. In this Colorado hunt I often came across 
 their tracks, and often heard their mournful, but to my 
 ears rather attractive, baying at night, but I never caught 
 a glimpse of one of them; nor during the years when I 
 spent much of my time on my ranch did I ever know of 
 a wolf venturing to approach anywhere near a man in 
 the day-time, though I have had them accompany me 
 after nightfall, and have occasionally come across them by 
 accident in daylight. But on the Keystone Ranch, where 
 I spent three weeks on this particular trip, an incident 
 which occurred before my arrival showed that wolves oc- 
 casionally act with extraordinary boldness. The former 
 owner of the ranch. Colonel Price, and one of the cow- 
 hands, Sabey (both of whom told me the story), were 
 driving out in a buggy from Meeker to the ranch accom- 
 panied by a setter dog. They had no weapon with them. 
 Two wolves joined them and made every effort to get 
 at the dog. They accompanied the wagon for nearly a 
 mile, venturing to within twenty yards of it. They paid 
 no heed whatever to the shouts and gestures of the men, 
 but did not quite dare to come to close quarters, and 
 finally abandoned their effort. Now, this action on their 
 part was, as far as my experience goes, quite as excep- 
 tional among American wolves as it is exceptional for 
 a cougar to attack a man. Of course, these wolves were 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 27 
 
 not after the men. They were simply after the dog; but 
 I have never within my otvn experience come upon an- 
 other instance of wolves venturing to attack a domestic 
 animal in the immediate presence of and protected by a 
 man. Exactly as these two wolves suddenly chose to 
 behave with an absolutely unexpected daring, so a cougar 
 will occasionally lose the fear of man which is inherent 
 in its race. 
 
 Normally, then, the cougar is not in any way a for- 
 midable foe to man, and it is certainly by no means as 
 dangerous to dogs as it could be if its courage and in- 
 telligence equalled its power to do mischief. It strikes 
 with its forepaw like a cat, lacerating the foe with its 
 sharp claws ; or else it holds the animal with them, while 
 the muscular forearm draws it in until the fatal bite may 
 be inflicted. Whenever possible it strives to bite an as- 
 sailant in the head. Occasionally, when fighting with a 
 large dog, a cougar will throw itself on its back and try 
 to rip open its antagonist with its hind feet. Male cou- 
 gars often fight desperately among themselves. 
 
 Although a silent beast, yet at times, especially during 
 the breeding season, the males utter a wild scream, and 
 the females also wail or call. I once heard one cry re- 
 peatedly after nightfall, seemingly while prowling for 
 game. On an evening in the summer of 1897 Dr. Mer- 
 riam had a rather singular experience with a cougar. 
 His party was camped in the forest by Tannum Lake, 
 on the east slope of the Cascades, near the headwaters 
 of a branch of the Yakima. The horses were feeding 
 near by. Shortly after dark a cougar cried loudly in 
 
28 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the gloom, and the frightened horses whinnied and 
 stampeded. The cougar cried a number of times after- 
 ward, but the horses did not again answer. None of 
 them was killed, however; and next morning, after some 
 labor, all were again gathered together. In 1884 I had 
 a somewhat similar experience with a bear, in the Big 
 Horn Mountains. 
 
 Occasionally, but not often, the cougars I shot snarled 
 or uttered a low, thunderous growl as we approached the 
 tree, or as the dogs came upon them in the cave. In the 
 death-grapple they were silent, excepting that one young 
 cougar snarled and squalled as it battled with the dogs. 
 
 The cougar is sometimes tamed. A friend of mine 
 had one which was as good-natured as possible until it 
 was a year old, when it died. But one kept by another 
 friend, while still quite young, became treacherous and 
 dangerous. I doubt if they would ever become as trust- 
 worthy as a tame wolf, which, if taken when a very young 
 puppy, will often grow up exactly like a dog. Two or 
 three years ago there was such a tame wolf with the Colo- 
 rado Springs greyhounds. It was safer and more friendly 
 than many collies, and kept on excellent terms with the 
 great greyhounds; though these were themselves solely 
 used to hunt wolves and coyotes, and tackled them with 
 headlong ferocity, having, unaided, killed a score or two 
 of the large wolves and hundreds of coyotes. 
 
 Hunting in the snow we were able to tell very clearly 
 what the cougars whose trails we were following had 
 been doing. Goff's eye for a trail was unerring, and he 
 read at a glance the lesson it taught. All the cougars 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 29 
 
 which we came across were living exclusively upon deer, 
 and their stomachs were filled with nothing else; much 
 hair being mixed with the meat. In each case the deer 
 was caught by stalking and not by lying in wait, and 
 the cougar never went up a tree except to get rid of the 
 dogs. In the day-time it retired to a ledge, or ravine, or 
 dense thicket, starting to prowl as the dark came on. So 
 far as I could see the deer in each case was killed by a 
 bite in the throat or neck. The cougar simply rambled 
 around in likely grounds until it saw or smelled its 
 quarry, and then crept up stealthily until with one or 
 two tremendous bounds it was able to seize its prey. 
 If, as frequently happened, the deer took alarm in 
 time to avoid the first few bounds, it always got away, 
 for though the cougar is very fast for a short distance, 
 it has no wind whatever. It cannot pursue a deer for 
 any length of time, nor run before a dog for more than 
 a few hundred yards, if the dog is close up at the start. 
 I was informed by the ranchmen that when in May the 
 deer leave the country, the cougars turn their attention 
 to the stock, and are very destructive. They have a special 
 fondness for horseflesh and kill almost every colt where 
 they are plentiful, while the big males work havoc with 
 the saddle bands on the ranches, as well as among the 
 brood mares. Except in the case of a female with young 
 they are roving, wandering beasts, and roam great dis- 
 tances. After leaving their day lairs, on a ledge, or in 
 a gorge or thicket, they spend the night travelling across 
 the flats, along the ridges, over the spurs. When they 
 kill a deer they usually lie not very far away, and do 
 
30 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 not again wander until they are hungry. The males 
 travel very long distances in the mating season. Their 
 breeding-time is evidently irregular. We found kittens 
 w^ith their eyes not yet open in the middle of January. 
 Two of the female cougars we killed were pregnant — 
 in one case the young would have been born almost im- 
 mediately, that is, in February; and in the other case in 
 March. One, which had a partially grown young one 
 of over fifty pounds with it, still had milk in its teats. 
 At the end of January we found a male and female to- 
 gether, evidently mating. Gofif has also found the young 
 just dropped in May, and even in June. The females 
 outnumber the males. Of the fourteen we killed, but 
 three were males. 
 
 When a cougar kills a deer in the open it invariably 
 drags it under some tree or shelter before beginning to 
 eat. All the carcasses we came across had been thus 
 dragged, the trail showing distinctly in the snow. Gofif, 
 however, asserted that in occasional instances he had 
 known a cougar to carry a deer so that only its legs trailed 
 on the ground. 
 
 The fourteen cougars we killed showed the widest 
 variation not only in size but in color, as shown by the 
 following table. Some were as slaty-gray as deer when 
 in the so-called " blue " ; others, rufous, almost as bright 
 as deer in the " red." I use these two terms to describe 
 the color phases; though in some instances the tint was 
 very undecided. The color phase evidently has nothing 
 to do with age, sex, season, or locality. In this table the 
 first cougar is the one killed by Stewart, the sixth by 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 
 
 31 
 
 Webb. The length is measured in a straight line, " be- 
 tween uprights," from the nose to the extreme tip of the 
 tail, when the beast was stretched out. The animals were 
 weighed with the steelyard and also spring scales. Be- 
 fore measuring, we pulled the beast out as straight as we 
 possibly could; and as the biggest male represents about, 
 or very nearly, the maximum for the species, it is easy 
 
 Sex. 
 
 Color. 
 
 Length. 
 
 Weight. 
 
 Date. 
 
 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Inches. 
 
 Pounds. 
 
 1901. 
 
 ^Female. 
 
 Blue. 
 
 4 
 
 II 
 
 47 
 
 January 19 
 
 iFemale. 
 
 Red. 
 
 4 
 
 iij4 
 
 51 
 
 February 12 
 
 Female. 
 
 Blue. 
 
 6 
 
 
 80 
 
 January 14 
 
 Female. 
 
 Red. 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 102 
 
 January 28 
 
 Female. 
 
 Blue. 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 105 
 
 February 12 
 
 Female. 
 
 Blue. 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 107 
 
 January 18 
 
 Female. 
 
 Red. 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 108 
 
 January 24 
 
 Female. 
 
 Blue. 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 118 
 
 January 15 
 
 Female. 
 
 Blue. 
 
 '6 
 
 7 
 
 120 
 
 January 3 1 
 
 Female. 
 
 Red. 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 124 
 
 February 5 
 
 Female. 
 
 Blue. 
 
 7 
 
 
 133 
 
 February 8 
 
 Male. 
 
 Red. 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 160 
 
 February 13 
 
 Male. 
 
 Blue. 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 164 
 
 January 2 7 
 
 Male. 
 
 Red. 
 
 8 
 
 
 227 
 
 February 14 
 
 to see that there can be no basis for the talk one sometimes 
 hears about ten and eleven foot cougars. No cougar, 
 measured at all fairly, has ever come anywhere near 
 reaching the length of nine feet. The fresh hide can 
 easily be stretched a couple of feet extra. Except the first 
 two, all were full grown; the biggest male was nearly 
 three times the size of the smallest female. 
 
 I shot five bobcats : two old males weighing 39 and 31 
 
 1 Young. 
 
32 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 pounds respectively; and three females, weighing, respec- 
 tively, 25, 21, and 18 pounds. Webb killed two, a male 
 of 29 pounds and a female of 20; and Stewart two females, 
 one of 22 pounds, and the other a young one of 1 1 pounds. 
 
 I sent the cougar and bobcat skulls to Dr. Merriam, 
 at the Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture, 
 Washington. He wrote me as follows : " The big [cou- 
 gar] skull is certainly a giant. I have compared it with 
 the largest in our collection from British Columbia and 
 Wyoming, and find it larger than either. It is in fact 
 the largest skull of any member of the Felis concolor 
 group I have seen. A hasty preliminary examination in- 
 dicates that the animal is quite different from the north- 
 west coast form, but that it is the same as my horse-killer 
 from Wyoming — Felis hippolestes. In typical Felis con- 
 color from Brazil the skull is lighter, the brain-case thin- 
 ner and more smoothly rounded, devoid of the strongly 
 developed sagittal crest; the under jaw straighter and 
 lighter. 
 
 " Your series of skulls from Colorado is incomparably 
 the largest, most complete and most valuable series ever 
 brought together from any single locality, and will be of 
 inestimable value in determining the amount of indi- 
 vidual variation." 
 
 We rode in to the Keystone Ranch late on the even- 
 ing of the second day after leaving Meeker. We had 
 picked up a couple of bobcats on the way, and had found 
 a cougar's kill (or bait, as Goff called it) — a doe, almost 
 completely eaten. The dogs puzzled for several hours 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 33 
 
 over the cold trail of the cougar ; but it was old, and ran 
 hither and thither over bare ground, so that they finally 
 lost it. The ranch was delightfully situated at the foot 
 of high wooded hills broken by cliffs, and it was pleasant 
 to reach the warm, comfortable log buildings, with their 
 clean rooms, and to revel in the abundant, smoking-hot 
 dinner, after the long, cold hours in the saddle. As every- 
 where else in the cattle country nowadays, a successful 
 effort had been made to store water on the Keystone, and 
 there were great stretches of wire fencing — two improve- 
 ments entirely unknown in former days. But the fore- 
 man, William Wilson, and the two punchers or cow- 
 hands, Sabey and Collins, were of the old familiar type — 
 skilled, fearless, hardy, hard-working, with all the in- 
 telligence and self-respect that we like to claim as typical 
 of the American character at its best. All three carried 
 short saddle guns when they went abroad, and killed a 
 good many coyotes, and now and then a gray wolf. The 
 cattle were for the most part grade Herefords, very dif- 
 ferent from the wild, slab-sided, long-horned creatures 
 which covered the cattle country a score of years ago. 
 
 The next day, January 14th, we got our first cougar. 
 This kind of hunting was totally different from that to 
 which I had been accustomed. In the first place, there 
 was no need of always being on the alert for a shot, as 
 it was the dogs who did the work. In the next place, 
 instead of continually scanning the landscape, what we 
 had to do was to look down so as to be sure not to pass 
 over any tracks ; for frequently a cold trail would be in- 
 dicated so faintly that the dogs themselves might pass it 
 
34 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 by, if unassisted by Goflf's keen eyes and thorough knowl- 
 edge of the habits of the quarry. Finally, there was no 
 object in making an early start, as what we expected to 
 find was not the cougar, but the cougar's trail ; moreover, 
 the horses and dogs, tough though they were, could not 
 stand more than a certain amount, and to ride from sun- 
 rise to sunset, day in and day out, for five weeks, just 
 about tested the limits of their endurance. 
 
 We made our way slowly up the snow-covered, pin- 
 yon-clad side of the mountain back of the house, and 
 found a very old cougar trail which it was useless to try 
 to run, and a couple of fresh bobcat trails which it was 
 difficult to prevent the dogs from following. After criss- 
 crossing over the shoulders of this mountain for two or 
 three hours, and scrambling in and out of the ravines, 
 we finally struck another cougar trail, much more recent, 
 probably made thirty-six hours before. The hounds had 
 been hunting free to one side or the other of our path. 
 They were now summoned by a blast of the horn, and 
 with a wave of Goff's hand away they went on the trail. 
 Had it been fresh they would have run out of hearing 
 at once, for it was fearfully rough country. But they were 
 able to work but slowly along the loops and zigzags of 
 the trail, where it led across bare spaces, and we could 
 keep well in sight and hearing of them. Finally they 
 came to where it descended the sheer side of the mountain 
 and crossed the snow-covered valley beneath. They were 
 still all together, the pace having been so slow, and in 
 the snow of the valley the scent was fresh. It was a fine 
 sight to see them as they rushed across from one side to 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 35 
 
 the other, the cliffs echoing their chiming. Jim and the 
 three bitches were in the lead, while Boxer fell behind, 
 as he always did when the pace was fast. 
 
 Leading our horses, we slid and scrambled after the 
 hounds ; but when we reached the valley they had passed 
 out of sight and sound, and we did not hear them again 
 until we had toiled up the mountain opposite. They were 
 then evidently scattered, having come upon many bare 
 places; but while we were listening, and working our 
 way over to the other side of the divide, the sudden in- 
 crease in the baying told GoS that they had struck the 
 fresh trail of the beast they were after; and in two or 
 three minutes we heard Jim's deep voice " barking treed." 
 The three fighters, who had been trotting at our heels, 
 recognized the difference in the sound quite as quickly 
 as we did, and plunged at full speed toward it down the 
 steep hillside, throwing up the snow like so many snow- 
 ploughs. In a minute or two the chorus told us that all 
 the dogs were around the tree, and we picked our way 
 down toward them. 
 
 While we were still some distance off we could see 
 the cougar in a low pinyon moving about as the dogs 
 tried to get up, and finally knocking one clean out of the 
 top. It was the first time I had ever seen dogs with a 
 cougar, and I was immensely interested; but Stewart's 
 whole concern was with his camera. When we were 
 within fifty yards of the tree, and I was preparing to 
 take the rifle out of the scabbard, Stewart suddenly called 
 " halt," with the first symptoms of excitement he had 
 shown, and added, in an eager undertone : " Wait, there 
 
36 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 is a rabbit right here, and I want to take his picture," 
 Accordingly we waited, the cougar not fifty yards off and 
 the dogs yelling and trying to get up the tree after it, 
 while Stewart crept up to the rabbit and got a kodak some 
 six feet distant. Then we resumed our march toward the 
 tree, and the cougar, not liking the sight of the reinforce- 
 ments, jumped out. She came down just outside the pack 
 and ran up hill. So quick was she that the dogs failed 
 to seize her, and for the first fifty yards she went a great 
 deal faster than they did. Both in the jump and in the 
 run she held her tail straight out behind her; I found 
 out afterward that sometimes one will throw its tail 
 straight in the air, and when walking along, when first 
 roused by the pack, before they are close, will, if angry, 
 dash the tail from side to side, at the same time grinning 
 and snarling. 
 
 In a minute the cougar went up another tree, but, 
 as we approached, again jumped down, and on this oc- 
 casion, after running a couple of hundred yards, the dogs 
 seized it. The worry was terrific ; the growling, snarling, 
 and yelling rang among the rocks; and leaving our horses 
 we plunged at full speed through the snow down the 
 rugged ravine in which the fight was going on. It was 
 a small though old female, only a few pounds heavier 
 than either Turk or Jim, and the dogs had the upper 
 hand when we arrived. They would certainly have 
 killed it unassisted, but as it was doing some damage to 
 the pack, and might at any moment kill a dog, I ended 
 the struggle by a knife-thrust behind the shoulder. To 
 shoot would have been quite as dangerous for the dogs 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 37 
 
 as for their quarry. Three of the dogs were badly 
 scratched, and Turk had been bitten through one foreleg, 
 and Boxer through one hind leg. 
 
 As will be seen by the measurements given before, 
 this was much the smallest full-grown cougar we got. It 
 was also one of the oldest, as its teeth showed, and it 
 gave me a false idea of the size of cougars; although I 
 knew they varied in size I was not prepared for the wide 
 variation we actually found. 
 
 The fighting dogs were the ones that enabled me to 
 use the knife. All three went straight for the head, and 
 when they got hold they kept their jaws shut, worrying 
 and pulling, and completely absorbing the attention of 
 the cougar, so as to give an easy chance for the death- 
 blow. The hounds meanwhile had seized the cougar be- 
 hind, and Jim, with his alligator jaws, probably did as 
 much damage as Turk. However, neither in this nor in 
 any other instance, did any one of the dogs manage to get 
 its teeth through the thick skin. When cougars fight 
 among themselves their claws and fangs leave great scars, 
 but their hides are too thick for the dogs to get their 
 teeth through. On the other hand, a cougar's jaws have 
 great power, and dogs are frequently killed by a single 
 bite, the fangs being driven through the brain or spine; 
 or they break a dog's leg or cut the big blood-vessels of 
 the throat. 
 
 I had been anxious to get a set of measurements and 
 weights of cougars to give to Dr. Hart Merriam. Ac- 
 cordingly I was carrying a tape, while Goflf, instead of 
 a rifle, had a steelyard in his gun scabbard. We weighed 
 
38 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 and measured the cougar, and then took lunch, making 
 as impartial a distribution of it as was possible among 
 ourselves and the different members of the pack; for, of 
 course, we were already growing to have a hearty fellow- 
 feeling for each individual dog. 
 
 The next day we were again in luck. After about two 
 hours' ride we came upon an old trail. It led among 
 low hills, covered with pinyon and cedar, and broken by 
 gullies or washouts, in whose sharp sides of clay the water 
 had made holes and caves. Soon the hounds left it to 
 follow a bobcat, and we had a lively gallop through the 
 timber, dodging the sharp snags of the dead branches 
 as best we might. The cat got into a hole in a side 
 washout; Baldy went in after it, and the rest of us, men 
 and dogs, clustered about to look in. After a consider- 
 able time he put the cat out of the other end of the hole, 
 nearly a hundred yards off, close to the main washout. 
 The first we knew of it we saw it coming straight toward 
 us, its tail held erect like that of a whitetail deer. Be- 
 fore either we or the dogs quite grasped the situation it 
 bolted into another hole almost at our feet, and this time 
 Baldy could not find it, or else could not get at it. Then 
 we took up the cougar trail again. It criss-crossed in 
 every direction. We finally found an old " bait," a buck. 
 It was interesting to see the way in which the cougar had 
 prowled from point to point, and the efforts it had made 
 to approach the deer which it saw or smelled. Once 
 we came to where it had sat down on the edge of a 
 cliff, sitting on its haunches with its long tail straight 
 behind it and looking out across the valley. After it had 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 39 
 
 killed, according to the invariable custom of its kind, it 
 had dragged the deer from the open, where it had over- 
 taken it, to the shelter of a group of trees. 
 
 We finally struck the fresh trail; but it, also, led 
 hither and thither, and we got into such a maze of tracks 
 that the dogs were completely puzzled. After a couple 
 of hours of vain travelling to and fro, we gave up the 
 efifort, called the dogs off, and started back beside a large 
 washout which led along between two ridges, Goff, as 
 usual, was leading, the dogs following and continually 
 skirting to one side or the other. Suddenly they all began 
 to show great excitement, and then one gave furious 
 tongue at the mouth of a hole in some sunken and broken 
 ground not thirty yards to our right. The whole pack 
 rushed toward the challenge, the fighters leaped into the 
 hole, and in another moment the row inside told us that 
 they had found a cougar at home. We jumped off and 
 ran down to see if we could be of assistance. To get into 
 the hole was impossible, for two or three hounds had 
 jumped down to join the fighters, and we could see noth- 
 ing but their sterns. Then we saw Turk backing out with 
 a dead kitten in his mouth. I had supposed that a cougar 
 would defend her young to the last, but such was not the 
 case in this instance. For some minutes she kept the dogs 
 at bay, but then gradually gave ground, leaving her three 
 kittens. Of course, the dogs killed them instantly, much 
 to our regret, as we would have given a good deal to 
 have kept them alive. As soon as she had abandoned 
 them, away she went completely through the low cave 
 or hole, leaped out of the other end, which was some 
 
40 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 thirty or forty yards off, scaled the bank, and galloped 
 into the woods, the pack getting after her at once. She 
 did not run more than a couple of hundred yards, and 
 as we tore up on our horses we saw her standing in the 
 lower branches of a pinyon only six or eight feet from 
 the ground. She was not snarling or grinning, and 
 looked at us as quietly as if nothing had happened. As 
 we leaped out of the saddles she jumped down from the 
 tree and ran off through the pack. They were after her 
 at once, however, and a few yards farther on she started 
 up another tree. Either Tony or Baldy grabbed her by 
 the tip of the tail, she lost her footing for a moment, 
 and the whole pack seized her. She was a powerful fe- 
 male of about the average size, being half as heavy again 
 as the one we first got, and made a tremendous fight ; and 
 savage enough she looked, her ears tight back against 
 her head, her yellow eyes flashing, and her great teeth 
 showing as she grinned. For a moment the dogs had her 
 down, but biting and striking she freed her head and 
 fore quarters from the fighters, and faced us as we ran 
 up, the hounds still having her from behind. This was 
 another chance for the knife, and I cheered on the 
 fighters. Again they seized her by the head, but though 
 absolutely stanch dogs, their teeth, as I have said, had 
 begun to suffer, and they were no longer always able to 
 make their holds good. Just as I was about to strike 
 her she knocked Turk loose with a blow, bit Baldy, and 
 then, her head being free, turned upon me. Fortunately, 
 Tony caught her free paw on that side, while I jammed 
 the gun-butt into her jaws with my left hand and struck 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 41 
 
 home with the right, the knife driving straight to the 
 heart. The deep fang marks she left in the stock, biting 
 the corner of the shoulder clean off, gave an idea of the 
 power of her jaws. If it had been the very big male 
 cougar which I afterward killed, the stock would doubt- 
 less have been bitten completely in two. 
 
 The dogs were pretty well damaged, and all retired 
 and lay down under the trees, where they licked their 
 wounds, and went to sleep ; growling savagely at one an- 
 other when they waked, but greeting us with demonstra- 
 tive affection, and trotting eagerly out to share our lunch 
 as soon as we began to eat it. Unaided, they would ulti- 
 mately have killed the cougar, but the chance of one or 
 two of them being killed or crippled was too great for 
 us to allow this to be done; and in the mix-up of the 
 struggle it was not possible to end it with the rifle. The 
 writhing, yelling tangle offered too shifting a mark; one 
 would have been as apt to hit a dog as the cougar. Gofif 
 told me that the pack had often killed cougars unassisted; 
 but in the performance of such feats the best dogs were 
 frequently killed, and this was not a risk to be taken 
 lightly. 
 
 In some books the writers speak as if the male and 
 female cougar live together and jointly seek food for the 
 young. We never found a male cougar anywhere near 
 either a female with young or a pregnant female. Ac- 
 cording to my observation the male only remains with 
 the female for a short time, during the mating season, at 
 which period he travels great distances in search of his 
 temporary mates — for the females far outnumber the 
 
42 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 males. The cougar is normally a very solitary beast. 
 The young — two to four in number, though more than 
 one or two rarely grow up — follow the mother until over 
 half grown. The mother lives entirely alone with the 
 kittens while they are small. As the males fight so 
 fiercely among themselves, it may be that the old he-cou- 
 gars kill the young of their own sex; a ranchman whom 
 I knew once found the body of a young male cougar 
 which had evidently been killed by an old one; but I 
 cannot say whether or not this was an exceptional case. 
 
 During the next ten days Stewart and Webb each shot 
 a cougar. Webb's was got by as pretty an exhibition of 
 trailing on the part of Gofif and his hounds as one could 
 wish to see. We ran across its old tracks while coming 
 home on Wednesday, January i6th. The next day, 
 Thursday, we took up the trail, but the animal had trav- 
 elled a long distance; and, as cougars so often do, had 
 spent much of its time walking along ledges, or at the 
 foot of the cliffs, where the sun had melted the snow off 
 the ground. In consequence, the dogs were often at fault. 
 Moreover, bobcats were numerous, and twice the pack 
 got after one, running a couple of hours before, in one 
 instance, the cat went into a cave, and, in the other, took 
 to a tree, where it was killed by Webb. At last, when 
 darkness came on, we were forced to leave the cougar 
 trail and ride home; a very attractive ride, too, loping 
 rapidly over the snow-covered flats, while above us the 
 great stars fairly blazed in the splendor of the winter 
 night. 
 
 Early next morning we again took up the trail, and 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 
 
 43 
 
 after a little while found where it was less than thirty-six 
 hours old. The dogs now ran it well, but were thrown 
 out again on a large bare hillside, until Boxer succeeded 
 in recovering the scent. They went up a high mountain 
 and we toiled after them. Again they lost the trail, and 
 while at fault jumped a big bobcat which they ran up 
 a tree. After shooting him we took lunch, and started 
 to circle for the trail. Most of the dogs kept with Goff, 
 but Jim got off to one side on his own account; and sud- 
 denly his baying told us that he had jumped the cougar. 
 The rest of the pack tore toward him and after a quarter 
 of a mile run they had the quarry treed. The ground 
 was too rough for riding, and we had to do some stiflf 
 climbing to get to it on foot. 
 
 Stewart's cougar was a young-of-the-year, and, ac- 
 cording to his custom, he took several photographs of it. 
 Then he tried to poke it so that it would get into a better 
 position for the camera ; whereupon it jumped out of the 
 tree and ran headlong down hill, the yelling dogs but a 
 few feet behind. Our horses had been left a hundred 
 yards or so below, where they all stood, moping, with 
 their heads drooped and their eyes half shut, in regular 
 cow-pony style. The chase streamed by not a yard from 
 their noses, but evidently failed to arouse even an emotion 
 of interest in their minds, for they barely looked up, and 
 made not a movement of any kind when the cougar treed 
 again just below them. 
 
 We killed several bobcats; and we also got another 
 cougar, this time in rather ignominious fashion. We 
 had been running a bobcat, having an excellent gallop, 
 
44 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 during the course of which Stewart's horse turned a 
 somersault. Without our knowledge the dogs changed 
 to the fresh trail of a cougar, which they ran into its den 
 in another cut bank. When we reached the place they 
 had gone in after it, Baldy dropping into a hole at the 
 top of the bank, while the others crawled into the main 
 entrance, some twenty-five yards off at the bottom. It 
 was evidently a very rough house inside, and above the 
 baying, yelping, and snarling of the dogs we could hear 
 the rumbling overtone of the cougar's growl. On this 
 day we had taken along Queen, the white bull bitch, to 
 " enter " her at cougar. It was certainly a lively ex- 
 perience for a first entry. We reached the place in time 
 to keep Jim and the hound bitches out of the hole. It 
 was evident that the dogs could do nothing with the cou- 
 gar inside. They could only come at it in front, and 
 under such circumstances its claws and teeth made the 
 odds against them hopeless. Every now and then it 
 would charge, driving them all back, and we would then 
 reach in, seize a dog and haul him out. At intervals there 
 would be an awful yelling and a hound would come out 
 bleeding badly, quite satisfied, and without the slightest 
 desire to go in again. Poor Baldy was evidently killed 
 inside. Queen, Turk, and Tony were badly clawed and 
 bitten, and we finally got them out too; Queen went in 
 three times, and came out on each occasion with a fresh 
 gash or bite; Turk was, at the last, the only one really 
 anxious to go in again. Then we tried to smoke out 
 the cougar, for as one of the dogs had gotten into the 
 cave through an upper entrance, we supposed the cougar 
 

 W 
 H 
 
 W 
 i- 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 45 
 
 could get out by the same route. However, it either 
 could not or would not bolt; coming down close to the 
 entrance where we had built the sage-brush fire, there 
 it stayed until it was smothered. We returned to the 
 ranch carrying its skin, but not over-pleased, and the 
 pack much the worse for wear. Dr. Webb had to sew 
 up the wounds of three of the dogs. One, Tony, was 
 sent back to the home ranch, where he died. In such 
 rough hunting as this, it is of course impossible to pre- 
 vent occasional injuries to the dogs when they get the 
 cougar in a cave, or overtake him on the ground. All 
 that can be done is to try to end the contest as speedily 
 as possible, which we always did. 
 
 Judging from the experience of certain friends of 
 mine in the Argentine, I think it would be safe to crawl 
 into a cave to shoot a cougar under normal circumstances ; 
 but in this instance the cave was a long, winding hole, 
 so low that we could not get in on hands and knees, hav- 
 ing to work our way on our elbows. It was pitch dark 
 inside, so that the rifle sights could not be seen, and the 
 cougar was evidently very angry and had on two or three 
 occasions charged the dogs, driving them out of the en- 
 trance of the hole. In the dark, the chances were strongly 
 against killing it with a single shot; while if only 
 wounded, and if it had happened to charge, the man, in 
 his cramped position, would have been utterly helpless. 
 
 The day after the death of the smoked-out cougar 
 Stewart and Webb started home. Then it snowed for two 
 days, keeping us in the ranch. While the snow was fall- 
 ing, there was no possibility of finding or following 
 
46 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 tracks; and as a rule wild creatures lie close during a 
 storm. We were glad to have fresh snow, for the multi- 
 tude of tracks in the old snow had become confusing; and 
 not only the southern hillsides but the larger valleys had 
 begun to grow bare, so that trailing was difficult. 
 
 The third day dawned in brilliant splendor, and when 
 the sun arose all the land glittered dazzling white under 
 his rays. The hounds were rested, we had fresh horses, 
 and after an early breakfast we started to make a long 
 circle. All the forenoon and early afternoon we plodded 
 through the snowdrifts, up and down the valleys, and 
 along the ridge crests, without striking a trail. The dogs 
 trotted behind us or circled from one side to the other. 
 It was no small test of their stanchness, eager and fresh 
 as they were, for time after time we aroused bands of 
 deer, to which they paid no heed whatever. At last, in 
 mid-afternoon, we suddenly struck the tracks of two 
 cougars, one a very large one, an old male. They had 
 been playing and frolicking together, for they were evi- 
 dently mating, and the snow in the tracks showed that 
 they had started abroad before the storm was entirely 
 over. For three hours the pack followed the cold trail, 
 through an exceedingly rugged and difficult country, in 
 which Goff helped them out again and again. 
 
 Just at sunset the cougars were jumped, and ran 
 straight into and through a tangle of spurs and foothills, 
 broken by precipices, and riven by long deep ravines. 
 The two at first separated and then came together, with 
 the result that Tree'em, Bruno, and Jimmie got on the 
 back trail and so were left far behind; while old Boxer 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 47 
 
 also fell to the rear, as he always did when the scent was 
 hot, and Jim and the bitches were left to do the running 
 by themselves. In the gathering gloom we galloped 
 along the main divide, my horse once falling on a slip- 
 pery sidehill, as I followed headlong after Gofif — ^whose 
 riding was like the driving of the son of Nimshi. The 
 last vestige of sunlight disappeared, but the full moon 
 was well up in the heavens when we came to a long spur, 
 leading off to the right for two or three miles, beyond 
 which we did not think the chase could have gone. It 
 had long run out of hearing. Making our way down the 
 rough and broken crest of this spur, we finally heard 
 far off the clamorous baying which told us that the 
 hounds had their quarry at bay. We did not have the 
 fighters with us, as they were still under the weather from 
 the results of their encounter in the cave. 
 
 As it afterward appeared, the cougars had run three 
 miles before the dogs overtook them, making their way 
 up, down and along such difficult clififs that the pack had 
 to keep going round. The female then went up a tree, 
 while the pack followed the male. He would not climb a 
 tree and came to bay on the edge of a cliff. A couple of 
 hundred yards from the spot, we left the horses and 
 scrambled along on foot, guided by the furious clamor 
 of the pack. When we reached them, the cougar had 
 gone along the face of the cliff, most of the dogs could 
 not see him, and it was some time before we could make 
 him out ourselves. Then I got up quite close. Although 
 the moonlight was bright I could not see the sights of 
 my rifle, and fired a little too far back. The bullet, how- 
 
48 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 ever, inflicted a bad wound, and the cougar ran along a 
 ledge, disappearing around the cliflf shoulder. The con- 
 duct of the dogs showed that he had not left the cliff, but 
 it was impossible to see him either from the sides or from 
 below. The cliff was about a hundred feet high and the 
 top overhung the bottom, while from above the ground 
 sloped down to the brink at a rather steep angle, so that 
 we had to be cautious about our footing. There was a 
 large projecting rock on the brink; to this I clambered 
 down, and, holding it with one hand, peeped over the 
 edge. After a minute or two I made out first the tail and 
 then the head of the cougar, who was lying on a narrow 
 ledge only some ten feet below me, his body hidden 
 by the overhang of the cliff. Thanks to the steepness 
 of the incline, I could not let go of the rock with my 
 left hand, because I should have rolled over; so I got 
 Goff to come down, brace his feet against the projection, 
 and grasp me by my legs. He then lowered me gently 
 down until my head and shoulders were over the edge 
 and my arms free; and I shot the cougar right between 
 the ears, he being in a straight line underneath me. The 
 dogs were evidently confident that he was going to be 
 shot, for they had all gathered below the cliff to wait for 
 him to fall ; and sure enough, down he came with a crash, 
 luckily not hitting any of them. We could hear them 
 seize him, and they all, dead cougar and worrying dogs, 
 rolled at least a hundred yards down the steep slope be- 
 fore they were stopped by a gully. It was an interest- 
 ing experience, and one which I shall not soon forget. 
 We clambered down to where the dogs were, admired 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 49 
 
 our victim, and made up our minds not to try to skin him 
 until the morning. Then we led down our horses, with 
 some difficulty, into the snow-covered valley, mounted 
 them, and cantered home to the ranch, under the cold and 
 brilliant moon, through a white wonderland of shimmer- 
 ing light and beauty. 
 
 Next morning we came back as early as possible, in- 
 tending first to skin the male and then to hunt up the 
 female. A quarter of a mile before we reached the car- 
 cass we struck her fresh trail in the snow of the valley. 
 Calling all the dogs together and hustling them for- 
 ward, we got them across the trail without their paying 
 any attention to it; for we wanted to finish the job of 
 skinning before taking up the hunt. However, when we 
 got ofif our horses and pulled the cougar down to a flat 
 place to skin it, Nellie, who evidently remembered that 
 there had been another cougar besides the one we had 
 accounted for, started away on her own account while 
 we were not looking. The first thing we knew we heard 
 her giving tongue on the mountains above us, in such 
 rough country that there was no use in trying to head her 
 off. Accordingly we jumped on the horses again, rode 
 down to where we had crossed the trail and put the 
 whole pack on it. After crossing the valley the cougar 
 had moved along the ledges of a great spur or chain of 
 foothills, and as this prevented the dogs going too fast 
 we were able to canter alongside them up the valley, 
 watching them and listening to their chiming. We 
 finally came to a large hillside bare of snow, much broken 
 with rocks, among which grew patches of brush and scat- 
 
so AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 tered pinyons. Here the dogs were at fault for over an 
 hour. It had evidently been a favorite haunt of the cou- 
 gars; they had moved to and fro across it, and had lain 
 sunning themselves in the dust under the ledges. Owing 
 to the character of the ground we could give the hounds 
 no assistance, but they finally puzzled out the trail for 
 themselves. We were now given a good illustration of 
 the impossibility of jumping a cougar without dogs, even 
 when in a general way its haunt is known. We rode 
 along the hillside, and quartered it to and fro, on the 
 last occasion coming down a spur where we passed within 
 two or three rods of the brush in which the cougar was 
 actually lying; but she never moved and it was impos- 
 sible to see her. When we finally reached the bottom, 
 the dogs had disentangled the trail; and they passed be- 
 hind us at a good rate, going up almost where we had 
 come down. Even as we looked we saw the cougar rise 
 from her lair, only fifty yards or so ahead of them, her 
 red hide showing bright in the sun. It was a very pretty 
 run to watch while it lasted. She left them behind at 
 first, but after a quarter of a mile they put her up a pin- 
 yon. Approaching cautiously — for the climbing was 
 hard work and I did not wish to frighten her out of the 
 tree if it could be avoided, lest she might make such a 
 run as that of the preceding evening — I was able to shoot 
 her through the heart. She died in the branches, and 
 I climbed the tree to throw her down. The only skill 
 needed in such shooting is in killing the cougar outright 
 so as to save the dogs. Six times on the hunt I shot the 
 cougar through the heart. Twice the animal died in 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 51 
 
 the branches. In the other four cases it sprang out of 
 the tree, head and tail erect, eyes blazing, and the mouth 
 open in a grin of savage hate and anger ; but it was prac- 
 tically dead when it touched the ground. 
 
 Although these cougars were mates, they were not of 
 the same color, the female being reddish, while the male 
 was slate-colored. In weighing this male we had to 
 take off the hide and weigh it separately (with the head 
 and paws attached), for our steelyard only went up to 
 150 pounds. When we came to weigh the biggest male 
 we had to take off the quarters as well as the hide. 
 
 Thinking that we had probably exhausted the cougars 
 around the Keystone Ranch, we spent the next fortnight 
 off on a trip. We carried only what we could put in 
 the small saddle-pockets — our baggage being as strictly 
 limited as it ought to be with efficient cavalry who are 
 on an active campaign. We worked hard, but, as so often 
 happens, our luck was not in proportion to our labor. 
 
 The first day we rode to the Mathes brothers' ranch. 
 On the high divides it was very cold, the thermometer 
 standing at nearly twenty degrees below zero. But we 
 were clad for just such weather, and were not uncom- 
 fortable. The three Mathes brothers lived together, with 
 the wives and children of the two married ones. Their 
 ranch was in a very beautiful and wild valley, the pinyon- 
 crowned cliffs rising in walls on either hand. Deer were 
 abundant and often in sight from the ranch doors. At 
 night the gray wolves came down close to the buildings 
 and howled for hours among the precipices, under the 
 light of the full moon. The still cold was intense; but 
 
52 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 I could not resist going out for half an hour at a time 
 to listen to them. To me their baying, though a very 
 eerie and lonesome sound, full of vaguely sinister associa- 
 tions, has, nevertheless, a certain wild music of its own 
 which is far from being without charm. 
 
 We did not hear the cougars calling, for they are cer- 
 tainly nothing like as noisy as wolves; yet the Mathes 
 brothers had heard them several times, and once one of 
 them had crept up and seen the cougar, which remained 
 in the same place for many minutes, repeating its cry 
 continually. The Mathes had killed but two cougars, 
 not having any dogs trained to hunt them. One of these 
 was killed under circumstances which well illustrate the 
 queer nature of the animal. The three men, with one of 
 their two cattle dogs, were walking up the valley not half 
 a mile above the ranch house, when they saw a cougar 
 crossing in front of them, a couple of hundred yards off. 
 As soon as she saw them she crouched flat down with 
 her head toward them, remaining motionless. Two, with 
 the dog, stayed where they were, while the other ran 
 back to the ranch house for a rifle and for the other dog. 
 No sooner had he gone than the cougar began deliber- 
 ately to crawl toward the men who were left. She came 
 on slowly but steadily, crouched almost flat to the ground. 
 The two unarmed men were by no means pleased with 
 her approach. They waved their hands and jumped 
 about and shouted; but she kept approaching, although 
 slowly, and was well within a hundred yards when the 
 other brother arrived, out of breath, accompanied by the 
 other dog. At sight of him she jumped up, ran off a 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 53 
 
 couple of hundred yards, went up a tree, and was killed. 
 I do not suppose she would have attacked the men ; but 
 as there was an unpleasant possibility that she might, they 
 both felt distinctly more comfortable when their brother 
 rejoined them with the rifle. 
 
 There was a good deal of snowy weather while we 
 were at the Mathes ranch, but we had fair luck, kill- 
 ing two cougars. It was most comfortable, for the ranch 
 was clean and warm, and the cooking delicious. It does 
 not seem to me that I ever tasted better milk and butter, 
 hot biscuits, rice, potatoes, pork and bulberry and wild- 
 plum jam ; and of course the long days on horseback in the 
 cold weather gave an edge to our appetites. One stormy 
 day we lost the hounds, and we spent most of the next day 
 in finding such of them as did not come straggling in of 
 their own accord. The country was very rough, and it 
 was astounding to see some of the places up and down 
 which we led the horses. Sometimes I found that my 
 horse climbed rather better than I did, for he would come 
 up some awkward-looking slope with such a rush that I 
 literally had to scramble on all-fours to get out of his 
 way. 
 
 There was no special incident connected with killing 
 either of these two cougars. In one case Gofif himself 
 took the lead in working out the trail and preventing the 
 hounds getting off after bobcats. In the other case the 
 trail was fresher and the dogs ran it by themselves, get- 
 ting into a country where we could not follow; it was 
 very rough, and the cliffs and gorges rang with their 
 baying. In both cases they had the cougar treed for about 
 
54 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 three hours before we were able to place them and walk 
 up to them. It was hard work, toiling through the snow 
 over the cliffs toward the baying; and on each occasion 
 the cougar leaped from the tree at our approach, and ran 
 a quarter of a mile or so before going up another, where 
 it was shot. As I came up to shoot, most of the dogs paid 
 no attention, but Boxer and Nellie always kept looking 
 at me until I actually raised the rifle, when they began 
 to spring about the spot where they thought the cougar 
 would come down. The cougar itself always seemed 
 to recognize the man as the dangerous opponent; and as 
 I strode around to find a place from whence I could 
 deliver an instantaneously fatal shot, it would follow me 
 steadily with its evil yellow eyes. I came up very close, 
 but the beasts never attempted to jump at me. Judging 
 from what one reads in books about Indian and Afri- 
 can game, a leopard under such circumstances would cer- 
 tainly sometimes charge. 
 
 Three days of our trip were spent on a ride to Colo- 
 row Mountain ; we went down to Judge Foreman's ranch 
 on White River to pass the night. We got another cou- 
 gar on the way. She must really be credited to Jim. The 
 other dogs were following in our footsteps through the 
 snow, after having made various futile excursions of their 
 own. When we found that Jim was missing, we tried in 
 vain to recall him with the horn, and at last started to 
 hunt him up. After an hour's ride we heard him off on 
 the mountain, evidently following a trail, but equally 
 evidently not yet having jumped the animal. The hounds 
 heard him quite as quickly as we did, and started toward 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS S5 
 
 him. Soon we heard the music of the whole pack, which 
 grew fainter and fainter, and was lost entirely as they 
 disappeared around a spur, and then began to grow loud 
 again, showing that they were coming toward us. Sud- 
 denly a change in the note convinced us that they had 
 jumped the quarry. We stood motionless; nearer and 
 nearer they came; and then a sudden burst of clamor pro- 
 claimed that they were barking treed. We had to ride 
 only a couple of hundred yards ; I shot the cougar from 
 across a little ravine. She was the largest female we got. 
 
 The dogs were a source of unceasing amusement, not 
 merely while hunting, but because of their relations to 
 one another when off duty. Queen's temper was of the 
 shortest toward the rest of the pack, although, like Turk, 
 she was fond of literally crawling into my lap, when we 
 sat down to rest after the worry which closed the chase. 
 As soon as I began to eat my lunch, all the dogs clustered 
 close around and I distributed small morsels to each in 
 turn. Once Jimmie, Queen, and Boxer were sitting side 
 by side, tightly wedged together. I treated them with 
 entire impartiality; and soon Queen's feelings overcame 
 her, and she unostentatiously but firmly bit Jimmie in the 
 jaw. Jimmie howled tremendously and Boxer literally 
 turned a back somersault, evidently fearing lest his turn 
 should come next. 
 
 On February nth we rode back to the Keystone 
 Ranch, carrying the three cougar skins behind our saddles. 
 It was again very cold, and the snow on the divides was 
 so deep that our horses wallowed through it up to their 
 saddle-girths. I supposed that my hunt was practically 
 
56 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 at an end, for I had but three days left ; but as it turned 
 out these were the three most lucky days of the whole 
 trip. 
 
 The weather was beautiful, the snow lying deep 
 enough to give the dogs easy trailing even on the southern 
 slopes. Under the clear skies the landscape was daz- 
 zling, and I had to wear snow-glasses. On the first of the 
 three days, February 12th, we had not ridden half an 
 hour from the ranch before we came across the trail of 
 a very big bobcat. It was so heavy that it had broken 
 through the crust here and there, and we decided that 
 it was worth following. The trail went up a steep moun- 
 tain to the top, and we followed on foot after the dogs. 
 Among the cliffs on the top they were completely at fault, 
 hunting every which way. After awhile Goff suddenly 
 spied the cat, which had jumped off the top of a cliff into 
 a pinyon. I killed it before any of the dogs saw it, and 
 at the shot they all ran in the wrong direction. When 
 they did find us skinning it, they were evidently not at 
 all satisfied that it was really their bobcat — the one which 
 they had been trailing. Usually as soon as the animal 
 was killed they all lay down and dozed off; but on this 
 occasion they kept hurrying about and then in a body 
 started on the back trail. It was some time before we 
 could get them together again. 
 
 After we had brought them in we rode across one or 
 two ridges, and up and down the spurs without finding 
 anything, until about noon we struck up a long winding 
 valley where we came across one or two old cougar trails. 
 The pack were following in our footsteps behind the 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS ^-j 
 
 horses, except Jim, who took off to one side by himself. 
 Suddenly he began to show signs that he had come across 
 traces of game; and in another moment he gave tongue 
 and all the hounds started toward him. They quartered 
 around in the neighborhood of a little gulch for a short 
 while, and then streamed off up the mountain-side ; and 
 before they had run more than a couple of minutes we 
 heard them barking treed. By making a slight turn we 
 rode almost up to the tree, and saw that their quarry was 
 a young cougar. As we came up, it knocked Jimmie 
 right out of the tree. On seeing us it jumped down and 
 started to run, but it was not quite quick enough. Turk 
 seized it and in a minute the dogs had it stretched out. It 
 squawled, hissed, and made such a good fight that I put 
 an end to the struggle with the knife, fearing lest it might 
 maim one of the hounds. 
 
 While Goff was skinning it I wandered down to the 
 kill near which it had been lying. This was a deer, al- 
 most completely devoured. It had been killed in the val- 
 ley and dragged up perhaps a hundred yards to some 
 cedars. I soon saw from the tracks around the carcass 
 that there was an older cougar with the younger one — 
 doubtless its mother — and walked back to Goff with the 
 information. Before I got there, however, some of the 
 pack had made the discovery for themselves. Jim, evi- 
 dently feeling that he had done his duty, had curled up 
 and gone to sleep, with most of the others ; but old Boxer 
 and the three bitches (Pete had left her pups and joined 
 us about the time we roused the big bobcat) , hunted about 
 until they struck the fresh trail of the old female. They 
 
S8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 went off at a great rate, and the sleeping dogs heard them 
 and scampered away to the sound. The trail led them 
 across a spur, into a valley, and out of it up the precipi- 
 tous side of another mountain. When we got to the edge 
 of the valley we could hear them barking treed nearly 
 at the summit of the mountain opposite. It was over an 
 hour's stiff climbing before we made our way around to 
 them, although we managed to get the horses up to within 
 a quarter of a mile of the spot. On approaching we found 
 the cougar in a leaning pinyon on a ledge at the foot of 
 a cliff. Jimmie was in the lower branches of the pinyon, 
 and Turk up above him, within a few feet of the cougar. 
 Evidently he had been trying to tackle her and had been 
 knocked out of the tree at least once, for he was bleed- 
 ing a good deal and there was much blood on the snow 
 beneath. Yet he had come back into the tree, and was 
 barking violently not more than three feet beyond her 
 stroke. She kept up a low savage growling, and as soon 
 as I appeared, fixed her yellow eyes on me, glaring and 
 snarling as I worked around into a place from which 
 I could kill her outright. Meanwhile Goff took up his 
 position on the other side, hoping to get a photograph 
 when I shot. My bullet went right through her heart. 
 She bit her paw, stretched up her head and bit a branch, 
 and then died where she was, while Turk leaped forward 
 at the crack of the rifle and seized her in the branches. 
 I had some difficulty in bundling him and Jimmie out of 
 the tree as I climbed up to throw down the cougar. 
 
 Next morning we started early, intending to go to 
 Juniper Mountain, where we had heard that cougars 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 59 
 
 were plentiful; but we had only ridden about half an 
 hour from the ranch when we came across a trail which 
 by the size we knew must belong to an old male. It was 
 about thirty-six hours old and led into a tangle of bad 
 lands where there was great difficulty in working it 
 out. Finally, however, we found where it left these bad 
 lands and went straight up a mountain-side, too steep for 
 the horses to follow. From the plains below we watched 
 the hounds working to and fro until they entered a patch 
 of pinyons in which we were certain the cougar had 
 killed a deer, as ravens and magpies were sitting around 
 in the trees. In these pinyons the hounds were again at 
 fault for a little while, but at last evidently found the 
 right trail, and followed it up over the hill-crest and out 
 of sight. We then galloped hard along the plain to the 
 left, going around the end of the ridge and turning to 
 our right on the other side. Here we entered a deep 
 narrow valley or gorge which led up to a high plateau 
 at the farther end. On our right, as we rode up the 
 valley, lay the high and steep ridge over which the hounds 
 had followed the trail. On the left it was still steeper, 
 the slope being broken by ledges and precipices. Near 
 the mouth of the gorge we encountered the hounds, who 
 had worked the trail down and across the gorge, and were 
 now hunting up the steep cliff-shoulder on our left. Evi- 
 dently the cougar had wandered to and fro over this 
 shoulder, and the dogs were much puzzled and worked 
 in zigzags and circles around it, gradually getting clear 
 to the top. Then old Boxer suddenly gave tongue with 
 renewed zest and started off at a run almost on top of 
 
6o AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the ridge, the other dogs following. Immediately after- 
 ward they jumped the cougar. 
 
 We had been waiting below to see which direction the 
 chase would take and now put spurs to our horses and 
 galloped up the ravine, climbing the hillside on our right 
 so as to get a better view of what was happening. A few 
 hundred yards of this galloping and climbing brought us 
 again in sight of the hounds. They were now barking 
 treed and were clustered around a pinyon below the ridge 
 crest on the side hill opposite us. The two fighters, Turk 
 and Queen, who had been following at our horses' heels, 
 appreciated what had happened as soon as we did, and, 
 leaving us, ran down into the valley and began to work 
 their way through the deep snow up the hillside opposite, 
 toward where the hounds were. Ours was an ideal posi- 
 tion for seeing the whole chase. In a minute the cougar 
 jumped out of the tree down among the hounds, who 
 made no attempt to seize him, but followed him as soon 
 as he had cleared their circle. He came down hill at a 
 great rate and jumped over a low clifif, bringing after 
 him such an avalanche of snow that it was a moment 
 before I caught sight of him again, this time crouched 
 on a narrow ledge some fifteen or twenty feet below 
 the brink from which he had jumped, and about as far 
 above the foot of the cliff, where the steep hill-slope 
 again began. The hounds soon found him and came 
 along the ledge barking loudly, but not venturing near 
 where he lay facing them, with his back arched like 
 a great cat. Turk and Queen were meanwhile working 
 their way up hill. Turk got directly under the ledge 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 6i 
 
 and could not find a way up. Queen went to the left and 
 in a minute we saw her white form as she made her way 
 through the dark-colored hounds straight for the cougar. 
 "That's the end of Queen," said Gofif; "he'll kill her 
 now, sure," In another moment she had made her rush 
 and the cougar, bounding forward, had seized her, and 
 as we afterward discovered had driven his great fangs 
 right through the side of her head, fortunately missing 
 the brain. In the struggle he lost his footing and rolled 
 off the ledge, and when they struck the ground below he 
 let go of the bitch. Turk, who was near where they 
 struck, was not able to spring for the hold he desired, and 
 in another moment the cougar was coming down hill like 
 a quarter horse. We stayed perfectly still, as he was 
 travelling in our direction. Queen was on her feet al- 
 most as quick as the cougar, and she and Turk tore after 
 him, the hounds following in a few seconds, being de- 
 layed in getting off the ledge. It was astonishing to see 
 the speed of the cougar. He ran considerably more than 
 a quarter of a mile down hill, and at the end of it had 
 left the dogs more than a hundred yards behind. But his 
 bolt was shot, and after going perhaps a hundred yards 
 or so up the hill on our side and below us, he climbed 
 a tree, under which the dogs began to bay frantically, 
 while we scrambled toward them. When I got down I 
 found him standing half upright on a big branch, his 
 forepaws hung over another higher branch, his sides puff- 
 ing like bellows, and evidently completely winded. In 
 scrambling up the pinyon he must have struck a patch 
 of resin, for it had torn a handful of hair off from behind 
 
62 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 his right forearm. I shot him through the heart. At the 
 shot he sprang clean into the top of the tree, head and 
 tail up, and his face fairly demoniac with rage; but be- 
 fore he touched the ground he was dead. Turk jumped 
 up, seized him as he fell, and the two rolled over a low 
 ledge, falling about eight feet into the snow, Turk never 
 losing his hold. 
 
 No one could have wished to see a prettier chase un- 
 der better circumstances. It was exceedingly interesting. 
 The only dog hurt was Queen, and very miserable indeed 
 she looked. She stood in the trail, refusing to lie down 
 or to join the other dogs, as, with prodigious snarls at one 
 another, they ate the pieces of the carcass we cut out for 
 them. Dogs hunting every day, as these were doing, and 
 going through such terrific exertion, need enormous 
 quantities of meat, and as old horses and crippled steers 
 were not always easy to get, we usually fed them the cou- 
 gar carcasses. On this occasion, when they had eaten 
 until they could eat no longer, I gave most of my lunch to 
 Queen — Boxer, who after his feast could hardly move, 
 nevertheless waddling up with his ears forward to beg 
 a share. Queen evidently felt that the lunch was a deli- 
 cacy, for she ate it, and then trotted home behind us with 
 the rest of the dogs. Rather to my astonishment, next 
 day she was all right, and as eager to go with us as ever. 
 Though one side of her head was much swollen, in her 
 work she showed no signs of her injuries. 
 
 Early the following morning, February 14th, the last 
 day of my actual hunting, we again started for Juniper 
 Mountain, following the same course on which we had 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 63 
 
 started the previous day. Before we had gone a mile, 
 that is, only about half-way to where we had come across 
 the cougar track the preceding day, we crossed another, 
 and as we deemed a fresher, trail, which Gofi pronounced 
 to belong to a cougar even larger than the one we had 
 just killed. The hounds were getting both weary and 
 footsore, but the scent put heart into them and away they 
 streamed. They followed it across a sage-brush flat, and 
 then worked alo^ig under the base of a line of cliffs — cou- 
 gar being particularly apt thus to travel at the foot of 
 cliffs. The pack kept well together, and it was pleasant, 
 as we cantered over the snowy plain beside them, to lis- 
 ten to their baying, echoed back from the cliffs above. 
 Then they worked over the hill and we spurred ahead 
 and turned to the left, up the same gorge or valley in 
 which we had killed the cougar the day before. The 
 hounds followed the trail straight to the cliff-shoulder 
 where the day before the pack had been puzzled until 
 Boxer struck the fresh scent. Here they seemed to be 
 completely at fault, circling everywhere, and at one time 
 following their track of yesterday over to the pinyon-tree 
 up which the cougar had first gone. 
 
 We made our way up the ravine to the head of the 
 plateau, and then, turning, came back along the ridge 
 until we reached the top of the shoulder where the dogs 
 had been ; but when we got there they had disappeared. 
 It did not seem likely that the cougar had crossed the 
 ravine behind us — although as a matter of fact this was 
 exactly what had happened — and we did not know what 
 to make of the affair. 
 
64 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 We could barely hear the hounds ; they had followed 
 their back trail of the preceding day, toward the place 
 where we had first come across the tracks of the cougar 
 we had already killed. We were utterly puzzled, even 
 Gofif being completely at fault, and we finally became 
 afraid that the track which the pack had been running 
 was one which, instead of having been made during the 
 night, had been there the previous morning, and had been 
 made by the dead cougar. This meant, of course, that 
 we had passed it without noticing it, both going and com- 
 ing, on the previous day, and knowing Goflf's eye for a 
 track I could not believe this. He, however, thought we 
 might have confused it with some of the big wolf tracks, 
 of which a number had crossed our path. After some 
 hesitation, he said that at any rate we could find out the 
 truth by getting back into the flat and galloping around 
 to where we had begun our hunt the day before ; because 
 if the dogs really had a fresh cougar before them he must 
 have so short a start that they were certain to tree him 
 by the time they got across the ridge-crest. Accordingly 
 we scrambled down the precipitous mountain-side, gal- 
 loped along the flat around the end of the ridge and drew 
 rein at about the place where we had first come across 
 the cougar trail on the previous day. Not a dog was to 
 be heard anywhere, and Goff's belief that the pack was 
 simply running a back track became a certainty both in 
 his mind and mine, when Jim suddenly joined us, evi- 
 dently having given up the chase. We came to the con- 
 clusion that Jim, being wiser than the other dogs, ha;d 
 discovered his mistake while they had not; " he just nat- 
 urally quit," said Goflf. 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 65 
 
 After some little work we found where the pack had 
 crossed the broad flat valley into a mass of very rough 
 broken country, the same in which I had shot my first 
 big male by moonlight. Cantering and scrambling 
 through this stretch of cliflfs and valleys, we began to hear 
 the dogs, and at first were puzzled because once or twice 
 it seemed as though they were barking treed or had some- 
 thing at bay; always, however, as we came nearer we 
 could again hear them running a trail, and when we 
 finally got up tolerably close we found that they were all 
 scattered out. Boxer was far behind, and Nellie, whose 
 feet had become sore, was soberly accompanying him, no 
 longer giving" tongue. The others were separated one 
 from the other, and we finally made out Tree'em all by 
 himself, and not very far away. In vain Goff called and 
 blew his horn; Tree'em disappeared up a high hillside, 
 and with muttered comments on his stupidity we gal- 
 loped our horses along the valley around the foot of the 
 hill, hoping to intercept him. No sooner had we come 
 to the other side, however, than we heard Tree'em evi- 
 dently barking treed. We looked at one another, won- 
 dering whether he had come across a bobcat, or whether 
 it had really been a fresh cougar trail after all. 
 ^ Leaving our horses we scrambled up the canyon until 
 we got in sight of a large pinyon on the hillside, under- 
 neath which Tree'em was standing, with his preposter- 
 ous tail arched like a pump-handle, as he gazed solemnly 
 up in the tree, now and then uttering a bark at a huge 
 cougar, which by this time we could distinctly make out 
 standing in the branches. Turk and Queen had already 
 
66 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 left us and were running hard to join Tree' em, and in an- 
 other minute or two all of the hounds, except the belated 
 Boxer and Nellie, had also come up. The cougar having 
 now recovered his wind, jumped down and cantered off. 
 He had been running for three hours before the dogs and 
 evidently had been overtaken again and again, but had 
 either refused to tree, or if he did tree had soon come 
 down and continued his flight, the hounds not venturing 
 to meddle with him, and he paying little heed to them. 
 It was a different matter, however, with Turk and Queen 
 along. He went up the hill and came to bay on the top 
 of the cliflFs, where we could see him against the skyline. 
 The hounds surrounded him, but neither they nor Turk 
 came to close quarters. Queen, however, as soon as she 
 arrived rushed straight in, and the cougar knocked her 
 a dozen feet off. Turk tried to seize him as soon as Queen 
 had made her rush ; the cougar broke bay, and they all dis- 
 appeared over the hill-top, while we hurried after them. 
 A quarter of a mile beyond, on the steep hillside, they 
 again had him up a pinyon-tree. I approached as cau- 
 tiously as possible so as not to alarm him. He stood in 
 such an awkward position that I could not get a fair 
 shot at the heart, but the bullet broke his back, and 
 the dogs seized him as he struck the ground. Ther^ 
 was still any amount of fight in him, and I ran in as 
 fast as possible, jumping and slipping over the rocks 
 and the bushes as the cougar and dogs rolled and slid 
 down the steep mountain-side — for, of course, every min- 
 ute's delay meant the chance of a dog being killed or 
 crippled. It was a day of misfortunes for Jim, who was 
 
WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 67 
 
 knocked completely out of the fight by a single blow. 
 The cougar was too big for the dogs to master, even crip- 
 pled as he was ; but when I came up close Turk ran in 
 and got the great beast by one ear, stretching out the cou- 
 gar's head, while he kept his own forelegs tucked way 
 back so that the cougar could not get hold of them. This 
 gave me my chance and I drove the knife home, leaping 
 back before the creature could get round at me. Boxer 
 did not come up for half an hour, working out every inch 
 of the trail for himself, and croaking away at short in- 
 tervals, while Nellie trotted calmly beside him. Even 
 when he saw us skinning the cougar he would not hurry 
 nor take a short cut, but followed the scent to where the 
 cougar had gone up the tree, and from the tree down to 
 where we were; then he meditatively bit the carcass, 
 strolled off, and lay down, satisfied. 
 
 It was a very large cougar, fat and heavy, and the men 
 at the ranch believed it was the same one which had at 
 intervals haunted the place for two or three years, kill- 
 ing on one occasion a milch cow, on another a steer, and 
 on yet another a big work horse. Goff stated that he had 
 on two or three occasions killed cougars that were quite 
 as long, and he believed even an inch or two longer, but 
 that he had never seen one as large or as heavy. Its 
 weight was 227 pounds, and as it lay stretched out it 
 looked like a small African lioness. It would be im- 
 possible to wish a better ending to a hunt. 
 
 The next day Gofif and I cantered thirty miles into 
 Meeker, and my holiday was over. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 
 
 In mid-April, nineteen hundred and five, our party, 
 consisting of Philip B. Stewart, of Colorado Springs, and 
 Dr. Alexander Lambert, of New York, in addition to my- 
 self, left Newcastle, Col., for a bear hunt. As guides and 
 hunters we had John Goff and Jake Borah, than whom 
 there are no better men at their work of hunting bear 
 in the mountains with hounds. Each brought his own 
 dogs; all told, there were twenty-six hounds, and four 
 half-blood terriers to help worry the bear when at bay. 
 We travelled in comfort, with a big pack train, spare 
 horses for each of us, and a cook, packers, and horse 
 wranglers. I carried one of the new model Springfield 
 military rifles, a 30-40, with a soft-nosed bullet — a very 
 accurate and hard-hitting gun. 
 
 This first day we rode about twenty miles to where 
 camp was pitched on the upper waters of East Divide 
 Creek. It was a picturesque spot. At this altitude it was 
 still late winter and the snow lay in drifts, even in the 
 creek bottom, while the stream itself was not yet clear 
 from ice. The tents were pitched in a grove of leafless 
 aspens and great spruces, beside the rushing, ice-rimmed 
 brook. The cook tent, with its stove, was an attractive 
 place on the cool mornings and in stormy weather. Fry, 
 
 68 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 69 
 
 the cook, a most competent man, had rigged up a table, 
 and we had folding camp-chairs — luxuries utterly un- 
 known to my former camping trips. Each day we break- 
 fasted early and dined ten or twelve hours later, on re- 
 turning from the day's hunt ; and as we carried no lunch, 
 the two meals were enjoyed with ravenous pleasure by the 
 entire company. The horses were stout, tough, shaggy 
 beasts, of wonderful staying power, and able to climb like 
 cats. The country was very steep and rugged ; the moun- 
 tain-sides were greasy and slippery from the melting 
 snow, while the snow bucking through the deep drifts on 
 their tops and on the north sides was exhausting. Only 
 sure-footed animals could avoid serious tumbles, and only 
 animals of great endurance could have lasted through 
 the work. Both Johnny Goff and his partner. Brick 
 Wells, who often accompanied us on the hunts, were fre- 
 quently mounted on animals of uncertain temper, with 
 a tendency to buck on insufficient provocation; but they 
 rode them with entire indifference up and down any 
 incline. One of the riders, " Al," a very good tempered 
 man, a tireless worker, had as one of his horses a queer, 
 big-headed dun beast, with a black stripe down its back 
 and traces of zebra-like bands on the backs of his front 
 legs. He was an atavistic animal, looking much as the 
 horses must have looked which an age or two ago lived 
 in this very locality and were preyed on by sabre-toothed 
 tigers, hyenadons, and other strange and terrible beasts 
 of a long- vanished era. Lambert remarked to him : " Al, 
 you ought to call that horse of yours * Fossil'; he is a 
 hundred thousand years old." To which Al, with im- 
 
JO AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 movable face, replied : " Gee ! and that man sold him to 
 me for a seven-year-old! I'll have the law on him! " 
 
 The hounds were most interesting, and showed all the 
 variations of character and temper to be expected in such 
 a pack; a pack in which performance counted for every- 
 thing and pedigree for nothing. One of the best hounds 
 was half fox terrier. Three of Johnny's had been with 
 us four years before, when he and I hunted cougars to- 
 gether; these three being Jim, now an old dog, who 
 dropped behind in a hard run, but still excellent on a 
 cold trail ; Tree'em, who, like Jim, had grown aged, but 
 was very sure; and Bruno, who had become one of the 
 best of all the pack on a hot trail, but who was apt to over- 
 run it if it became at all difficult and cold. The biggest 
 dog of the pack, a very powerful animal, was Badge, who 
 was half foxhound and half what Johnny called Siberian 
 bloodhound — I suppose a Great Dane or Ulm dog. His 
 full brother Bill came next to him. There was a Rowdy 
 in Jake's pack and another Rowdy in Johnny's, and each 
 got badly hurt before the hunt was through. Jake's 
 Rowdy, as soon as an animal was killed, became very 
 cross and wished to attack any dog that came near. One of 
 Jake's best hounds was old Bruise, a very sure, although 
 not a particularly fast dog. All the members of the pack 
 held the usual wild-beast attitude toward one another. 
 They joined together for the chase and the fight, but once 
 the quarry was killed, their relations among themselves 
 became those of active hostility or selfish indifference. 
 At feeding time each took whatever his strength per- 
 mitted, and each paid abject deference to whichever ani- 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 71 
 
 mal was his known superior in prowess. Some of the 
 younger dogs would now and then run deer or coyote. 
 But the older dogs paid heed only to bear and bobcat; and 
 the pack, as a body, discriminated sharply between the 
 hounds they could trust and those which would go off 
 on a wrong trail. The four terriers included a heavy, 
 liver-colored half-breed bull-dog, a preposterous animal 
 who looked as if his ancestry had included a toadfish. 
 He was a terrible fighter, but his unvarying attitude tow- 
 ard mankind was one of effusive and rather foolish 
 affection. In a fight he could whip any of the hounds 
 save Badge, and he was far more willing than Badge to 
 accept punishment. There was also a funny little black 
 and tan, named Skip, a most friendly little fellow, espe- 
 cially fond of riding in front or behind the saddle of any 
 one of us who would take him up, although perfectly 
 able to travel forty miles a day on his own sturdy legs if 
 he had to, and then to join in the worry of the quarry 
 when once it had been shot. Porcupines abounded in the 
 woods, and one or two of the terriers and half a dozen 
 of the hounds positively refused to learn any wisdom, 
 invariably attacking each porcupine they found; the re- 
 sult being that we had to spend many minutes in removing 
 the quills from their mouths, eyes, etc. A white bull-ter- 
 rier would come in from such a combat with his nose 
 literally looking like a glorified pincushion, and many of 
 the spines we had to take out with nippers. The terriers 
 never ran with the hounds, but stayed behind with the 
 horses until they heard the hounds barking " bayed " or 
 " treed," when they forthwith tore toward them. Skip 
 
72 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 adopted me as his special master, rode with me whenever 
 I would let him, and slept on the foot of my bed at night, 
 growling defiance at anything that came near. I grew 
 attached to the friendly, bright little fellow, and at the 
 end of the hunt took him home with me as a playmate 
 for the children. 
 
 It was a great, wild country. In the creek bottoms 
 there were a good many ranches ; but we only occasionally 
 passed by these, on our way to our hunting grounds in the 
 wilderness along the edge of the snow-line. The moun- 
 tains crowded close together in chain, peak, and table- 
 land; all the higher ones were wrapped in an unrent 
 shroud of snow. We saw a good many deer, and fresh 
 sign of elk, but no elk themselves, although we were in- 
 formed that bands were to be found in the high spruce 
 timber where the snows were so deep that it would have 
 been impossible to go on horseback, while going on foot 
 would have been inconceivably fatiguing. The country 
 was open. The high peaks were bare of trees. Cotton- 
 woods, and occasionally dwarfed birch or maple and wil- 
 lows, fringed the streams ; aspens grew in groves higher 
 up. There were pinyons and cedars on the slopes of the 
 foothills; spruce clustered here and there in the cooler 
 ravines and valleys and high up the mountains. The 
 dense oak brush and thick growing cedars were hard on 
 our clothes, and sometimes on our bodies. 
 
 Bear and cougars had once been very plentiful 
 throughout this region, but during the last three or four 
 years the cougars have greatly diminished in numbers 
 throughout northern Colorado, and the bears have dimin- 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 
 
 73 
 
 ished also, although not to the same extent. The great 
 grizzlies which were once fairly plentiful here are now 
 very rare, as they are in most places in the United States. 
 There remain plenty of the black and brown bears, which 
 are simply individual color phases of the same species. 
 
 Bears are interesting creatures and their habits are 
 always worth watching. When I used to hunt grizzlies 
 my experience tended to make me lay special emphasis 
 on their variation in temper. There are savage and cow- 
 ardly bears, just as there are big and little ones; and 
 sometimes these variations are very marked among bears 
 of the same district, and at other times all the bears of 
 one district will seem to have a common code of behavior 
 which differs utterly from that of the bears of another 
 district. Readers of Lewis and Clark do not need to be 
 reminded of the great difference they found in ferocity 
 between the bears of the upper Missouri and the bears of 
 the Columbia River country; and those who have lived 
 in the upper Missouri country nowadays know how wide- 
 ly the bears that still remain have altered in character 
 from what they were as recently as the middle of the last 
 century. 
 
 This variability has been shown in the bears which 
 I have stumbled upon at close quarters. On but one oc- 
 casion was I ever regularly charged by a grizzly. To this 
 animal I had given a mortal wound, and without any 
 effort at retaliation he bolted into a thicket of what, in 
 my hurry, I thought was laurel (it being composed in 
 reality, I suppose, of thick-growing berry bushes). On 
 my following him and giving him a second wound, he 
 
74 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 charged very determinedly, taking two more bullets with- 
 out flinching. I just escaped the charge by jumping to 
 one side, and he died almost immediately after striking at 
 me as he rushed by. This bear charged with his mouth 
 open, but made very little noise after the growl or roar 
 with which he greeted my second bullet. I mention the 
 fact of his having kept his mouth open, because one or two 
 of my friends who have been charged have informed me 
 that in their cases they particularly noticed that the bear 
 charged with his mouth shut. Perhaps the fact that my 
 bear was shot through the lungs may account for the dif- 
 ference, or it may simply be another example of indi- 
 vidual variation. 
 
 On another occasion, in a windfall, I got up within 
 eight or ten feet of a grizzly, which simply bolted oflf, pay- 
 ing no heed to a hurried shot which I delivered as I 
 poised unsteadily on the swaying top of an overthrown 
 dead pine. On yet another occasion, when I roused a big 
 bear from his sleep, he at the first moment seemed to pay 
 little or no heed to me, and then turned toward me in a 
 leisurely way, the only sign of hostility he betrayed being 
 to ruffle up the hair on his shoulders and the back of his 
 neck, I hit him square between the eyes, and he dropped 
 like a pole-axed steer. 
 
 On another occasion I got up quite close to and mor- 
 tally wounded a bear, which ran oflf without uttering a 
 sound until it fell dead; but another of these grizzlies, 
 which I shot from ambush, kept squalling and yelling 
 every time I hit him, making a great rumpus. On one 
 occasion one of my cow hands and myself were able to 
 
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A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 
 
 7S 
 
 run down on foot a she grizzly bear and her cub, which 
 had obtained a long start of us, simply because of the 
 foolish conduct of the mother. The cub — or more prop- 
 erly the yearling, for it was a cub of the second year — 
 ran on far ahead, and would have escaped if the old she 
 had not continually stopped and sat up on her hind legs 
 to look back at us. I think she did this partly from curi- 
 osity, but partly also from bad temper, for once or twice 
 she grinned and roared at us. The upshot of it was that I 
 got within range and put a bullet in the old she, who 
 afterward charged my companion and was killed; and 
 we also got the yearling. 
 
 One young grizzly which I killed many years ago 
 dropped to the first bullet, which entered its stomach. It 
 then let myself and my companion approach closely, look- 
 ing up at us with alert curiosity, but making no effort 
 to escape. It was really not crippled at all, but we 
 thought from its actions that its back was broken, and my 
 companion advanced to kill it with his pistol. The pistol, 
 however, did not inflict a mortal wound, and the only 
 effect was to make the young bear jump to its feet as if 
 unhurt, and race off at full speed through the timber ; for 
 though not full grown it was beyond cubhood, being 
 probably about eighteen months old. By desperate run- 
 ning I succeeded in getting another shot, and more by 
 luck than by anything else knocked it over, this time per- 
 manently. 
 
 Black bear are not, under normal conditions, formi- 
 dable brutes. If they do charge and get home they may 
 maul a man severely, and there are a number of instances 
 
76 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 on record in which they have killed men. Ordinarily, 
 however, a black bear will not charge home, though he 
 may bluster a good deal. I once shot one very close up 
 which made a most lamentable outcry, and seemed to lose 
 its head, its efforts to escape resulting in its bouncing 
 about among the trees with such heedless hurry that I 
 was easily able to kill it. Another black bear, which I 
 also shot at close quarters, came straight for my compan- 
 ions and myself, and almost ran over the white hunter 
 who was with me. This bear made no sound whatever 
 when I first hit it, and I do not think it was charging. I 
 believe it was simply dazed, and by accident ran the 
 wrong way, and so almost came into collision with us. 
 However, when it found itself face to face with the white 
 hunter, and only four or five feet away, it prepared for 
 hostilities, and I think would have mauled him if I had 
 not brained it with another bullet; for I was myself stand- 
 ing but six feet or so to one side of it. Nofie of the bears 
 shot on this Colorado trip made a sound when hit; they 
 all died silently, like so many wolves. 
 
 Ordinarily, my experience has been that bears were 
 not flurried when I suddenly came upon them. They 
 impressed me as if they were always keeping in mind the 
 place toward which they wished to retreat in the event 
 of danger, and for this place, which was invariably a 
 piece of rough ground or dense timber, they made off 
 with all possible speed, not seeming to lose their heads. 
 
 Frequently I have been able to watch bears for some 
 time while myself unobserved. With other game I have 
 very often done this even when within close range, not 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 
 
 17 
 
 wishing to kill creatures needlessly, or without a good 
 object; but with bears, my experience has been that 
 chances to secure them come so seldom as to make it very 
 distinctly worth while improving any that do come, and 
 I have not spent much time watching any bear unless he 
 was in a place where I could not get at him, or else was 
 so close at hand that I was not afraid of his getting away. 
 On one occasion the bear was hard at work digging up 
 squirrel or gopher caches on the side of a pine-clad hill ; 
 while at this work he looked rather like a big badger. 
 On two other occasions the bear was fussing around a car- 
 cass preparatory to burying it. On these occasions I was 
 very close, and it was extremely interesting to note the 
 grotesque, half-human movements, and giant, awkward 
 strength of the great beast. He would twist the carcass 
 around with the utmost ease, sometimes taking it in his 
 teeth and dragging it, at other times grasping it in his 
 forepaws and half lifting, half shoving it. Once the bear 
 lost his grip and rolled over during the course of some 
 movement, and this made him angry, and he struck the 
 carcass a savage whack, just as a pettish child will strike 
 a table against which it has knocked itself. At another 
 time I watched a black bear some distance off getting 
 his breakfast under stumps and stones. He was very ac- 
 tive, turning the stone or log over, and then thrusting his 
 muzzle into the empty space to gobble up the small creat- 
 ures below before they recovered from their surprise and 
 the sudden inflow of light. From under one log he put 
 a chipmunk, and danced hither and thither with even 
 more agility than awkwardness, slapping at the chip- 
 
78 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 munk with his paw while it zigzagged about, until finally 
 he scooped it into his mouth. 
 
 All this was in the old days when I was still-hunting, 
 with only the rifle. This Colorado trip was the first on 
 which I hunted bears with hounds. If we had run across 
 a grizzly there would doubtless have been a chance to 
 show some prowess, at least in the way of hard riding. 
 But the black and brown bears cannot, save under ex- 
 ceptional circumstances, escape from such a pack as we 
 had with us ; and the real merit of the chase was confined 
 to the hounds and to Jake and Johnny for their skill in 
 handling them. Perhaps I should add the horses, for 
 their extraordinary endurance and surefootedness. As 
 for the rest of us, we needed to do little more than to 
 sit ten or twelve hours in the saddle and occasionally lead 
 the horses up or down the most precipitous and cliff-like 
 of the mountain sides. But it was great fun, nevertheless, 
 and usually a chase lasted long enough to be interesting. 
 
 The first day after reaching camp we rode for eleven 
 hours over a very difficult country, but without getting 
 above the snow-line. Finally the dogs got on the fresh 
 trail of a bobcat, and away they went. A bobcat will 
 often give a good run, much better, on the average, than 
 a cougar; and this one puzzled the dogs not a little at 
 first. It scrambled out of one deep valley, crossing and 
 recrossing the rock ledges where its scent was hard to 
 follow; then plunged into another valley. Meanwhile 
 we had ridden up on the high mountain spur between the 
 two valleys, and after scrambling and galloping to and 
 fro as the cry veered from point to point when the dogs 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 79 
 
 changed directions, we saw them cross into the second 
 valley. Here again they took a good deal of time to 
 puzzle out the trail, and became somewhat scattered. We 
 had dismounted and were standing by the horses' heads, 
 listening to the baying and trying to decide which way 
 we should go, when Stewart suddenly pointed us out a 
 bear. It was on the other side of the valley from us, and 
 perhaps half a mile away, galloping down hill, with two 
 of the hounds after it, and in the sunlight its fur looked 
 glossy black. In a minute or two it passed out of sight 
 in the thick-growing timber at the bottom of the valley; 
 and as we afterward found, the two hounds, getting mo- 
 mentarily thrown out, and hearing the others, still baying 
 on the cat trail, joined the latter. Jake started off to go 
 around the head of the valley, while the rest of us plunged 
 down into it. We found from the track that the bear 
 had gone up the valley, and Jake found where he had 
 come out on the high divide, and then turned and re- 
 traced his steps. But the hounds were evidently all after 
 the cat. There was nothing for us to do but follow them. 
 Sometimes riding, sometimes leading the horses, we went 
 up the steep hillside, and as soon as we reached the crest 
 heard the hounds barking treed. Shorty and Skip, who 
 always trotted after the horses while the hounds were in 
 full cry on a trail, recognized the change of note im- 
 mediately, and tore off in the direction of the bay, while 
 we followed as best we could, hoping to get there in time 
 for Stewart and Lambert to take photographs of the lynx 
 in a tree. But we were too late. Both Shorty and Skip 
 could climb trees, and although Skip was too light to 
 
8o AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 tackle a bobcat by himself, Shorty, a heavy, formidable 
 dog, of unflinching courage and great physical strength, 
 was altogether too much for any bobcat. When we 
 reached the place we found the bobcat in the top of a 
 pinyon, and Shorty steadily working his way up through 
 the branches and very near the quarry. Evidently the 
 bobcat felt that the situation needed the taking of desper- 
 ate chances, and just before Shorty reached it out it 
 jumped. Shorty yelling with excitement as he plunged 
 down through the branches after it. But the cat did not 
 jump far enough. One of the hounds seized it by the 
 hind leg and in another second everything was over. 
 
 Shorty was always the first of the pack to attack dan- 
 gerous game, and in attacking bear or cougar even Badge 
 was much less reckless and more wary. In consequence. 
 Shorty was seamed over with scars; most of them from 
 bobcats, but one or two from cougars. He could speedily 
 kill a bobcat single-handed ; for these small lynxes are not 
 really formidable fighters, although they will lacerate a 
 dog quite severely. Shorty found a badger a much more 
 difficult antagonist than a bobcat. A bobcat in a hole 
 makes a hard fight, however. On this hunt we once got 
 a bobcat under a big rock, and Jake's Rowdy in trying to 
 reach it got so badly mauled that he had to join the 
 invalid class for several days. 
 
 The bobcat we killed this first day was a male, weigh- 
 ing twenty-five pounds. It was too late to try after the 
 bear, especially as we had only ten or a dozen dogs out, 
 while the bear's tracks showed it to be a big one; and 
 we rode back to camp. 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 8i 
 
 Next morning we rode off early,' taking with us all 
 twenty-six hounds and the four terriers. We wished first 
 to find whether the bear had gone out of the country in 
 which we had seen him, and so rode up a valley and then 
 scrambled laboriously up the mountain-side to the top of 
 the snow-covered divide. Here the snow was three feet 
 deep in places, and the horses plunged and floundered as 
 we worked our way in single file through the drifts. But 
 it had frozen hard the previous night, so that a bear could 
 walk on the crust and leave very little sign. In conse- 
 quence we came near passing over the place where the 
 animal we were after had actually crossed out of the 
 canyon-like ravine in which we had seen him and gone 
 over the divide into another set of valleys. The trail was 
 so faint that it puzzled us, as we could not be certain how 
 fresh it was, and until this point could be cleared up we 
 tried to keep the hounds from following it. Old Jim, 
 however, slipped off to one side and speedily satisfied 
 himself that the trail was fresh. Along it he went, giving 
 tongue, and the other dogs were maddened by the sound, 
 while Jim, under such circumstances, paid no heed what- 
 ever to any effort to make him come back. Accordingly, 
 the other hounds were slipped after him, and down they 
 ran into the valley, while we slid, floundered, and scram- 
 bled along the ridge crest parallel to them, until a couple 
 of miles farther on we worked our way down to some 
 great slopes covered with dwarf scrub-oak. At the edge 
 of these slopes, where they fell off in abrupt descent to 
 the stream at the bottom of the valley, we halted. Op- 
 posite us was a high and very rugged mountain-side cov- 
 
82 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 ered with a growth of pinyon — never a close-grow- 
 ing tree — its precipitous flanks broken by ledges and 
 scored by gullies and ravines. It was hard to follow the 
 scent across such a mountain-side, and the dogs speedily 
 became much scattered. We could hear them plainly, 
 and now and then could see them, looking like ants as 
 they ran up and down hill and along the ledges. Finally 
 we heard some of them barking bayed. The volume of 
 sound increased steadily as the straggling dogs joined 
 those which had first reached the hunted animal. At 
 about this time, to our astonishment. Badge, usually a 
 stanch fighter, rejoined us, followed by one or two other 
 hounds, who seemed to have had enough of the matter. 
 Immediately afterward we saw the bear, half-way up the 
 opposite mountain-side. The hounds were all around 
 him, and occasionally bit at his hind quarters ; but he had 
 evidently no intention of climbing a tree. When we first 
 saw him he was sitting up on a point of rock surrounded 
 by the pack, his black fur showing to fine advantage. 
 Then he moved off, threatening the dogs, and making 
 what in Mississippi is called a walking bay. He .was a 
 sullen, powerful beast, and his leisurely gait showed how 
 little he feared the pack, and how confident he was in his 
 own burly strength. By this time the dogs had been after 
 him for a couple of hours, and as there was no water on 
 the mountain-side we feared they might be getting ex- 
 hausted, and rode toward them as rapidly as we could. 
 It was a hard climb up to where they were, and we had 
 to lead the horses. Just as we came in sight of him, across 
 a deep gully which ran down the sheer mountain-side, 
 
DEATH OF THE BIG BEAR 
 From a photograph by Philip B. Stewart 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 83 
 
 he broke bay and started off, threatening the foremost of 
 the pack as they dared to approach him. They were all. 
 around him, and for a minute I could not fire; then as 
 he passed under a pinyon I got a clear view of his great 
 round stern and pulled trigger. The bullet broke both 
 his hips, and he rolled down hill, the hounds yelling with 
 excitement as they closed in on him. He could still play 
 havoc with the pack, and there was need to kill him at 
 once. I leaped and slid down my side of the gully as 
 he rolled down his; at the bottom he stopped and 
 raised himself on his fore quarters; and with another 
 bullet I broke his back between the shoulders. 
 
 Immediately all the dogs began to worry the carcass, 
 while their savage baying echoed so loudly in the narrow, 
 steep gully that we could with difficulty hear one another 
 speak. It was a wild scene to look upon, as we scrambled 
 down to where the dead bear lay on his back between 
 the rocks. He did not die wholly unavenged, for he had 
 killed one of the terriers and six other dogs were more 
 or less injured. The chase of the bear is grim work for 
 the pack. Jim, usually a very wary fighter, had a couple 
 of deep holes in his thigh; but the most mishandled of 
 the wounded dogs was Shorty. With his usual dauntless 
 courage he had gone straight at the bear's head. Being 
 such a heavy, powerful animal, I think if he had been 
 backed up he could have held the bear's head down, and 
 prevented the beast from doing much injury. As it was, 
 the bear bit through the side of Shorty's head, and bit 
 him in the shoulder, and again in the hip, inflicting very 
 bad wounds. Once the fight was over Shorty lay down on 
 
84 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the hillside, unable to move. When we started home we 
 put him beside a little brook, and left a piece of bear meat 
 by him, as it was obvious we could not get him to camp 
 that day. Next day one of the boys went back with a 
 pack-horse to take him in; but half-way out met him 
 struggling toward camp, and returned. Late in the after- 
 noon Shorty turned up while we were at dinner, and stag- 
 gered toward us, wagging his tail with enthusiastic de- 
 light at seeing his friends. We fed him until he could not 
 hold another mouthful ; then he curled up in a dry corner 
 of the cook-tent and slept for forty-eight hours ; and two 
 or three days afterward was able once more to go hunting. 
 The bear was a big male, weighing three hundred and 
 thirty pounds. On examination at close quarters, his fur, 
 which was in fine condition, was not as black as it had 
 seemed when seen afar off, the roots of the hairs being 
 brown. There was nothing whatever in his stomach. 
 Evidently he had not yet begun to eat, and had been but 
 a short while out of his hole. Bear feed very little when 
 they first come out of their dens, sometimes beginning on 
 grass, sometimes on buds. Occasionally they will feed at 
 carcasses and try to kill animals within a week or two 
 after they have left winter quarters, but this is rare, and as 
 a usual thing for the first few weeks after they have come 
 out they feed much as a deer would. Although not hog 
 fat, as would probably have been the case in the fall, this 
 bear was in good condition. In the fall, however, he 
 would doubtless have weighed over four hundred pounds. 
 The three old females we got on this trip weighed one 
 hundred and eighty, one hundred and seventy-five, and 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 85 
 
 one hundred and thirty-five pounds apiece. The year- 
 lings weighed from thirty-one to forty pounds. The 
 only other black bears I ever weighed all belonged to the 
 sub-species Luteolus, and were killed on the Little Sun- 
 flower River, in Mississippi, in the late fall of nineteen 
 hundred and two. A big old male, in poor condition, 
 weighed two hundred and eighty-five pounds, and two 
 very fat females weighed two hundred and twenty and 
 two hundred and thirty-five pounds respectively. 
 
 The next few days we spent in hunting perseveringly, 
 but unsuccessfully. Each day we were from six to twelve 
 hours in the saddle, climbing with weary toil up the 
 mountains and slipping and scrambling down them. On 
 the tops and on the north slopes there was much snow, 
 so that we had to pick our trails carefully, and even thus 
 the horses often floundered belly-deep as we worked 
 along in single file; the men on the horses which were 
 best at snow bucking took turns in breaking the trail. 
 In the worst places we had to dismount and lead the 
 horses, often over such bad ground that nothing less sure- 
 footed than the tough mountain ponies could even have 
 kept their legs. The weather was cold, with occasional 
 sharp flurries of snow, and once a regular snow-storm. 
 We found the tracks of one or two bears, but in each case 
 several days old, and it was evident either that the bears 
 had gone back to their dens, finding the season so late, 
 or else that they were lying quiet in sheltered places, and 
 travelling as little as possible. One day, after a long run 
 of certainly five or six miles through very difficult coun- 
 try, the dogs treed a bobcat in a big cedar. It had run so 
 
86 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 far that it was badly out of breath. Stewart climbed 
 the tree and took several photographs of it, pushing the 
 camera up to within about four feet of where the cat 
 sat. Lambert obtained photographs of both Stewart and 
 the cat. Shorty was at this time still an invalid from his 
 encounter with the bear, but Skip worked his way thirty 
 feet up the tree in his effort to get at the bobcat. Lam- 
 bert shot the latter with his revolver, the bobcat dying 
 stuck in the branches ; and he then had to climb the tree 
 to get both the bobcat and Skip, as the latter was at such 
 a height that we thought he would hurt himself if he 
 fell. Another bobcat when treed sealed his own fate 
 by stepping on a dead branch and falling right into the 
 jaws of the pack. 
 
 At this camp, as everywhere, the tiny four-striped 
 chipmunks were plentiful and tame; they are cheerful, 
 attractive little animals. We also saw white-footed mice 
 and a big meadow mouse around camp ; and we found 
 a young brushy-tailed pack-rat. The snowshoe rabbits 
 were still white on the mountains, but in the lower valleys 
 they had changed to the summer pelage. On the moun- 
 tains we occasionally saw woodchucks and rock squirrels 
 of two kinds, a large and a small — Spermophilus gram- 
 murus and armatus. The noisy, cheerful pine squirrels 
 were common where the woods were thick. There were 
 eagles and ravens in the mountains, and once we saw 
 sandhill cranes soaring far above the highest peaks. The 
 long-crested jays came familiarly around camp, but on 
 this occasion we only saw the whiskey- jacks, Clark's nut- 
 crackers and magpies, while off in the mountains. 
 
STEWART AND THE BOBCAT 
 From a photograph, copyright, 1905, by Alexander Lambert, M.D. 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 87 
 
 Among the pinyons, we several times came across strag- 
 gling flocks of the queer pinyon jays or blue crows, with 
 their unmistakable calls and almost blackbird-like habits. 
 There were hawks of several species, and blue grouse, 
 while the smaller birds included flickers, robins, and the 
 beautiful mountain bluebirds. Juncos and mountain 
 chickadees were plentiful, and the ruby-crowned kinglets 
 were singing with astonishing power for such tiny birds. 
 We came on two nests of the red-tailed hawk; the birds 
 were brooding, and seemed tame and unwary. 
 
 After a week of this we came to the conclusion that 
 the snow was too deep and the weather too cold for us to 
 expect to get any more bear in the immediate neighbor- 
 hood, and accordingly shifted camp to where Clear Creek 
 joins West Divide Creek. 
 
 The first day's hunt from the new camp was success- 
 ful. We were absent about eleven hours and rode some 
 forty miles. The day included four hours' steady snow 
 bucking, for the bear, as soon as they got the chance, went 
 through the thick timber where the snow lay deepest. 
 Some two hours after leaving camp we found the old 
 tracks of a she and a yearling, but it took us a much longer 
 time before we finally struck the fresh trail made late the 
 previous night or early in the morning. It was Jake who 
 first found this fresh track, while Johnny with the pack 
 was a couple of miles away, slowly but surely puzzling 
 out the cold trail and keeping the dogs up to their work. 
 As soon as Johnny came up we put all the hounds on the 
 tracks, and away they went, through and over the snow, 
 yelling their eager delight. Meanwhile we had fixed our 
 
88 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 saddles and were ready for what lay ahead. It was 
 wholly impossible to ride at the tail of the pack, but we 
 did our best to keep within sound of the baying. Finally, 
 after much hard work and much point riding through 
 snow, slush, and deep mud, on the level, and along, up, 
 and down sheer slopes, we heard the dogs barking treed 
 in the middle of a great grove of aspens high up the 
 mountain-side. The snow was too deep for the horses, 
 and leaving them, we trudged heavily up on foot. The 
 yearling was in the top of a tall aspen. Lambert shot 
 it with his rifle and we then put the dogs on the trail of 
 the old she. Some of the young ones did not know what 
 to make of this, evidently feeling that the tracks must be 
 those of the bear that they had already killed; but the 
 veterans were in full cry at once. We scrambled after 
 them up the steep mountain, and then downward along 
 ridges and spurs, getting all the clear ground we could. 
 Finally we had to take to the snow, and floundered and 
 slid through the drifts until we were in the valley. Most 
 of the time the dogs were within hearing, giving tongue 
 as they followed the trail. Finally a total change in the 
 note showed that they were barking treed ; and as rapidly 
 as possible we made our way toward the sound. Again 
 we found ourselves unable to bring the horses up to where 
 the bear had treed, and scrambled thither on foot through 
 the deep snow. 
 
 The bear was some thirty or forty feet up a tall 
 spruce; it was a big she, with a glossy black-brown coat. 
 I was afraid that at our approach she might come down; 
 but she had been running hard for some four hours, had 
 
THE PACK BAYING THE BEAR 
 From a photograph, copyright, 1905, by Alexander Lambert, M.D. 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 89 
 
 been pressed close, and evidently had not the slightest 
 idea of putting herself of her own free will within the 
 reach of the pack, which was now frantically baying at 
 the foot of the tree. I shot her through the heart. As 
 the bullet struck she climbed up through the branches 
 with great agility for six or eight feet; then her muscles 
 relaxed, and down she came with a thud, nearly burying 
 herself in the snow. Little Skip was one of the first dogs 
 to seize her as she came down; and in another moment 
 he literally disappeared under the hounds as they piled 
 on the bear. As soon as possible we got off the skin and 
 pushed campward at a good gait, for we were a long 
 way off. Just at nightfall we came out on a bluff from 
 which we could overlook the rushing, swirling brown 
 torrent, on the farther bank of which the tents were 
 pitched. 
 
 The stomach of this bear contained nothing but buds. 
 Like the other shes killed on this trip, she was accom- 
 panied by her yearling young, but had no newly born 
 cub; sometimes bear breed only every other year, but 
 I have found the mother accompanied not only by her 
 cub but by her young of the year before. The yearling 
 also had nothing but buds in its stomach. When its skin 
 was taken off, Stewart looked at it, shook his head, and 
 turning to Lambert said solemnly, " Alex., that skin isn't 
 big enough to use for anything but a doily." From that 
 time until the end of the hunt the yearlings were only 
 known as " doily bears." 
 
 Next morning we again went out, and this time for 
 twelve hours steadily, in the saddle, and now and then 
 
90 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 on foot. Most of the time we were in snow, and it was 
 extraordinary that the horses could get through it at all, 
 especially in working up the steep mountain-sides. But 
 until it got so deep that they actually floundered — that is, 
 so long as they could get their legs down to the bottom — 
 I found that they could travel much faster than I could. 
 On this day some twenty good-natured, hard-riding 
 young fellows from the ranches within a radius of a 
 dozen miles had joined our party to " see the President 
 kill a bear." They were a cheerful and eagerly friendly 
 crowd, as hardy as so many young moose, and utterly fear- 
 less horsemen; one of them rode his wild, nervous horse 
 bareback, because it had bucked so when he tried to put 
 the saddle on it that morning that he feared he would 
 get left behind, and so abandoned the saddle outright. 
 Whenever they had a chance they all rode at headlong 
 speed, paying no heed to the slope of the mountain-side 
 or the character of the ground. In the deep snow they 
 did me a real service, for of course they had to ride 
 their horses single file through the drifts, and by the time 
 my turn came we had a good trail. 
 
 After a good deal of beating to and fro, we found 
 where an old she-bear with two yearlings had crossed a 
 hill during the night and put the hounds on their tracks. 
 Johnny and Jake, with one or two of the cowboys, fol- 
 lowed the hounds over the exceedingly difficult hillside 
 where the trail led; or rather, they tried to follow them, 
 for the hounds speedily got clear away, as there were 
 many places where they could run on the crust of the 
 snow, in which the horses wallowed almost helpless. The 
 
A DOILY BEAR 
 From a photograph, copyright, 1905, by Alexander Lambert, M.D. 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 
 
 91 
 
 rest of us went down to the valley, where the snow was 
 light and the going easier. The bear had travelled hither 
 and thither through the woods on the sidehill, and the 
 dogs became scattered. Moreover, they jumped sev- 
 eral deer, and four or five of the young dogs took after 
 one of the latter. Finally, however, the rest of the pack 
 put up the three bears. We had an interesting glimpse 
 of the chase as the bears quartered up across an open 
 spot of the hillside. The hounds were but a short distance 
 behind them, strung out in a long string, the more power- 
 ful, those which could do best in the snow-bucking, tak- 
 ing the lead. We pushed up the mountain-side after 
 them, horse after horse getting down in the snow, and 
 speedily heard the redoubled clamor which told us that 
 something had been treed. It was half an hour before 
 we could make our way to the tree, a spruce, in which 
 the two yearlings had taken refuge, while around the 
 bottom the entire pack was gathered, crazy with excite- 
 ment. We could not take the yearlings alive, both be- 
 cause we lacked the means of carrying them, and because 
 we were anxious to get after the old bear. We could 
 not leave them where they were, because it would have 
 been well-nigh impossible to get the dogs away, and be- 
 cause, even if we had succeeded in getting them away, 
 they would not have run any other trail as long as they 
 knew the yearlings were in the tree. It was therefore 
 out of the question to leave them unharmed, as we should 
 have been glad to do, and Lambert killed them both with 
 his revolver ; the one that was first hit immediately biting 
 its brother. The ranchmen took them home to eat. 
 
92 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 The hounds were immediately put on the trail of the 
 old one and disappeared over the snow. In a few minutes 
 we followed. It was heavy work getting up the moun- 
 tain-side through the drifts, but once on top we made our 
 way down a nearly bare spur, and then turned to the 
 right, scrambled a couple of miles along a slippery side- 
 hill, and halted. Below us lay a great valley, on the 
 farther side of which a spruce forest stretched up toward 
 the treeless peaks. Snow covered even the bottom of the 
 valley, and lay deep and solid in the spruce forest on the 
 mountain-side. The hounds were in full cry, evidently 
 on a hot trail, and we caught glimpses of them far on the 
 opposite side of the valley, crossing little open glades in 
 the spruce timber. If the crust was hard they scattered 
 out. Where it was at all soft they ran in single file. We 
 worked our way down toward them, and on reaching the 
 bottom of the valley, went up it as fast as the snow would 
 allow. Finally we heard the pack again barking treed 
 and started toward them. They had treed the bear far 
 up the mountain-side in the thick spruce timber, and a 
 short experiment showed us that the horses could not 
 possibly get through the snow. Accordingly, off we 
 jumped and went toward the sound on foot, all the young 
 ranchmen and cowboys rushing ahead, and thereby again 
 making me an easy trail. On the way to the tree the rider 
 of the bareback horse pounced on a snowshoe rabbit 
 which was crouched under a bush and caught it with his 
 hands. It was half an hour before we reached the tree, 
 a big spruce, up which the bear had gone to a height of 
 some forty feet. I broke her neck with a single bullet. 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 93 
 
 She was smaller than the one I had shot the day before, 
 but full grown. In her stomach, as in those of the two 
 yearlings, there were buds of rose-bushes and quaking 
 aspens. One yearling had also swallowed a mouse. It 
 was a long ride to camp, and darkness had fallen by the 
 time we caught the gleam from the lighted tents, across 
 the dark stream. 
 
 With neither of these last two bear had there been any 
 call for prowess ; my part was merely to kill the bear dead 
 at the first shot, for the sake of the pack. But the days 
 were very enjoyable, nevertheless. It was good fun to 
 be twelve hours in the saddle in such wild and beautiful 
 country, to look at and listen to the hounds as they 
 worked, and finally to see the bear treed and looking 
 down at the maddened pack baying beneath. 
 
 For the next two or three days I was kept in camp 
 by a touch of Cuban fever. On one of these days Lam- 
 bert enjoyed the longest hunt we had on the trip, after 
 an old she-bear and three yearlings. The yearlings treed 
 one by one, each of course necessitating a stoppage, and 
 it was seven in the evening before the old bear at last went 
 up a Cottonwood and was shot; she was only wounded, 
 however, and in the fight she crippled Johnny's Rowdy 
 before she was killed. When the hunters reached camp 
 it was thirteen hours since they had left it. The old bear 
 was a very light brown; the first yearling was reddish- 
 brown, the second light yellowish-brown, the third dark 
 black-brown, though all were evidently of the same litter. 
 
 Following this came a spell of bad weather, snow- 
 storm and blizzard steadily succeeding one another. 
 
94 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 This lasted until my holiday was over. Some days we 
 had to stay in camp. On other days we hunted ; but there 
 was three feet of new snow on the summits and foothills, 
 making it difficult to get about. We saw no mpre bear, 
 and, indeed, no more bear-tracks that were less than two 
 or three weeks old. 
 
 We killed a couple of bobcats. The chase of one was 
 marked by several incidents. We had been riding 
 through a blizzard on the top of a plateau, and were glad 
 to plunge down into a steep sheer-sided valley. By the 
 time we reached the bottom there was a lull in the storm 
 and we worked our way with considerable difficulty 
 through the snow, down timber, and lava rock, toward 
 Divide Creek. After a while the valley widened a little, 
 spruce and aspens fringing the stream at the bottom while 
 the sides were bare. Here we struck a fresh bobcat trail 
 leading off up one of the mountain-sides. The hounds 
 followed it nearly to the top, then turned and came down 
 again, worked through the timber in the bottom, and 
 struck out on the hillside opposite. Suddenly we saw the 
 bobcat running ahead of them and doubling and circling. 
 A few minutes afterward the hounds followed the trail 
 to the creek bottom and then began to bark treed. But 
 on reaching the point we found there was no cat in the 
 tree, although the dogs seemed certain that there was; 
 and Johnny and Jake speedily had them again running 
 on the trail. After making its way for some distance 
 through the bottom, the cat had again taken to the side- 
 hill, and the hounds went after it hard. Again they went 
 nearly to the top, again they streamed down to the bottom 
 
THE BIG BEAR 
 From a photograph by Phtlip-BrStewart 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 95 
 
 and crossed the creek. Soon afterward we saw the cat 
 ahead of them. For the moment it threw them off the 
 track by making a circle and galloping around close to 
 the rearmost hounds. It then made for the creek bottom, 
 where it climbed to the top of a tall aspen. The hounds 
 soon picked up the trail again, and followed it full cry; 
 but unfortunately just before they reached where it had 
 treed they ran on to a porcupine. When we reached the 
 foot of the aspen, in the top of which the bobcat crouched, 
 with most of the pack baying beneath, we found the por- 
 cupine dead and half a dozen dogs with their muzzles 
 and throats filled full of quills. Before doing anything 
 with the cat it was necessary to take these quills out. One 
 of the terriers, which always found porcupines an irre- 
 sistible attraction, was a really extraordinary sight, so 
 thickly were the quills studded over his face and chest. 
 But a big hound was in even worse condition ; the quills 
 were stuck in abundance into his nose, lips, cheeks, and 
 tongue, and in the roof of his mouth they were almost 
 as thick as bristles in a brush. Only by use of pincers was 
 it possible to rid these two dogs of the quills, and it was 
 a long and bloody job. The others had suffered less. 
 
 The dogs seemed to have no sympathy with one an- 
 other, and apparently all that the rest of the pack felt was 
 that they were kept a long time waiting for the cat. They 
 never stopped baying for a minute, and Shorty, as was his 
 habit, deliberately bit great patches of bark from the 
 aspens, to show his impatience ; for the tree in which the 
 cat stood was not one which he could climb. After at- 
 tending to the porcupine dogs one of the men climbed 
 
96 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the tree and with a stick pushed out the cat. It dropped 
 down through the branches forty or fifty feet, but was so 
 quick in starting and dodging that it actually rushed 
 through the pack, crossed the stream, and, doubling and 
 twisting, was off up the creek through the timber. It 
 ran cunning, and in a minute or two lay down under a 
 bush and watched the hounds as they went by, overrun- 
 ning its trail. Then it took oflf up the hillside; but the 
 hounds speedily picked up its track, and running in single 
 file, were almost on it. Then the cat turned down hill, 
 but too late, for it was overtaken within fifty yards. This 
 ended our hunting. 
 
 One Sunday we rode down some six miles from camp 
 to a little blue school-house and attended service. The 
 preacher was in the habit of riding over every alternate 
 Sunday from Rifle, a little town twenty or twenty-five 
 miles away ; and the ranchmen with their wives and chil- 
 dren, some on horseback, some in wagons, had gathered 
 from thirty miles round to attend the service. The crowd 
 was so large that the exercises had to take place in the 
 open air, and it was pleasant to look at the strong frames 
 and rugged, weather-beaten faces of the men; while as 
 for the women, one respected them even more than the 
 men. 
 
 In spite of the snow-storms spring was coming; some 
 of the trees were beginning to bud and show green, more 
 and more flowers were in bloom, and bird life was stead- 
 ily increasing. In the bushes by the streams the hand- 
 some white-crowned sparrows and green- tailed towhees 
 were in full song, making attractive music ; although the 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 97 
 
 song of neither can rightly be compared in point of 
 plaintive beauty with that of the white-throated sparrow, 
 which, except some of the thrushes, and perhaps the win- 
 ter wren, is the sweetest singer of the Northeastern forests. 
 The spurred towhees were very plentiful; and one morn- 
 ing a willow-thrush sang among the willows like a veery. 
 Both the crested jays and the Woodhouse jays came 
 around camp. Lower down the Western meadow larks 
 were singing beautifully, and vesper finches were abun- 
 dant. Say's flycatcher, a very attractive bird, with pretty, 
 soft-colored plumage, continually uttering a plaintive 
 single note, and sometimes a warbling twitter, flitted 
 about in the neighborhood of the little log ranch houses. 
 Gangs of blackbirds visited the corrals. I saw but one 
 song sparrow, and curiously enough, though I think it 
 was merely an individual peculiarity, this particular bird 
 had a song entirely different from any I have heard from 
 the familiar Eastern bird — always a favorite of mine. 
 
 While up in the mountains hunting, we twice came 
 upon owls, which were rearing their families in the de- 
 serted nests of the red-tailed hawk. One was a long-eared 
 owl, and the other a great horned owl, of the pale Western 
 variety. Both were astonishingly tame, and we found it 
 difficult to make them leave their nests, which were in 
 the tops of Cottonwood trees. 
 
 On the last day we rode down to where Glenwood 
 Springs lies, hemmed in by lofty mountain chains, which 
 are riven in sunder by sheer-sided, cliff-walled canyons. 
 As we left ever farther behind us the wintry desolation 
 of our high hunting grounds we rode into full spring. 
 
98 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 The green of the valley was a delight to the eye; bird 
 songs sounded on every side, from the fields and from the 
 trees and bushes beside the brooks and irrigation ditches; 
 the air was sweet with the spring-time breath of many 
 budding things. The sarvice bushes were white with 
 bloom, like shadblow on the Hudson ; the blossoms of the 
 Oregon grape made yellow mats on the ground. We saw 
 the chunky Say's ground squirrel, looking like a big chip- 
 munk, with on each side a conspicuous white stripe edged 
 with black. In one place we saw quite a large squirrel, 
 grayish, with red on the lower back. I suppose it was 
 only a pine squirrel, but it looked like one of the gray 
 squirrels of southern Colorado. Mountain mockers and 
 the handsome, bold Arkansaw king birds were numerous. 
 The black-tail sage sparrow was conspicuous in the sage- 
 brush, and high among the cliffs the white-throated swifts 
 were soaring. There were numerous warblers, among 
 which I could only make out the black-throated gray, 
 Audubon's, and McGillivray's. In Glenwood Springs 
 itself the purple finches, house finches, and Bullock's 
 orioles were in full song. Flocks of siskins passed with 
 dipping flight. In one rapid little stream we saw a water 
 ousel. Humming-birds — I suppose the broad-tailed — 
 were common, and as they flew they made, intermittently 
 and almost rhythmically, a curious metallic sound ; seem- 
 ingly it was done with their wings. 
 
 But the thing that interested me most in the way of 
 bird life was something I saw in Denver. To my delight 
 I found that the huge hotel at which we took dinner was 
 monopolized by the pretty, musical house finches, to the 
 
A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 
 
 99 
 
 exclusion of the ordinary city sparrows. The latter are 
 all too plentiful in Denver, as in every other city, and, 
 as always, are noisy, quarrelsome — in short, thoroughly 
 unattractive and disreputable. The house finch, on the 
 contrary, is attractive in looks, in song, and in ways. It 
 was delightful to hear the males singing, often on the 
 wing. They went right up to the top stories of the high 
 hotel, and nested under the eaves and in the cornices. 
 The cities of the Southwestern States are to be con- 
 gratulated on having this spirited, attractive little song- 
 ster as a familiar dweller around their houses and in 
 their gardens. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 WOLF-COURSING 
 
 On April eighth, nineteen hundred and five, we left 
 the town of Frederick, Oklahoma, for a few days' coyote 
 coursing in the Comanche Reserve. Lieut.-Gen. S. B. 
 M. Young, U. S. A., retired, Lieutenant Fortescue, U. 
 S. A., formerly of my regiment. Dr. Alexander Lambert, 
 of New York, Colonel Cecil Lyon, of Texas, and Sloan 
 Simpson, also of Texas, and formerly of my regiment, 
 were with me. We were the guests of two old-style Texas 
 cattlemen, Messrs. Burnett and Wagner, who had leased 
 great stretches of wire-fenced pasture from the Co- 
 manches and Kiowas; and I cannot sufficiently express 
 my appreciation of the kindness of these my two hosts. 
 Burnett's brand, the Four Sixes, has been owned by him 
 for forty years. Both of them had come to this country 
 thirty years before, in the days of the buffalo, when all 
 game was very plentiful and the Indians were still on 
 the war-path. Several other ranchmen were along, in- 
 cluding John Abernethy, of Tesca, Oklahoma, a profes- 
 sional wolf hunter. There were also a number of cow- 
 hands of both Burnett and Wagner; among them were 
 two former riders for the Four Sixes, Fi Taylor and 
 Uncle Ed Gillis, who seemed to make it their special 
 mission to see that everything went right with me. 
 
WOLF-COURSING loi 
 
 Furthermore there was Captain McDonald of the Texas 
 Rangers, a game and true man, whose name was one of 
 terror to outlaws and violent criminals of all kinds ; and 
 finally there was Quanah Parker, the Comanche chief, 
 in his youth a bitter foe of the whites, now painfully 
 teaching his people to travel the white man's stony road. 
 
 We drove out some twenty miles to where camp was 
 pitched in a bend of Deep Red Creek, which empties 
 into the Red River of the South. Cottonwood, elm, and 
 pecans formed a belt of timber along the creek; we had 
 good water, the tents were pitched on short, thick grass, 
 and everything was in perfect order. The fare was de- 
 licious. Altogether it was an ideal camp, and the days 
 we passed there were also ideal. Cardinals and mocking- 
 birds — the most individual and delightful of all birds in 
 voice and manner — sang in the woods ; and the beautiful, 
 many-tinted fork-tailed fly-catchers were to be seen now 
 and then, perched in trees or soaring in curious zigzags, 
 chattering loudly. 
 
 In chasing the coyote only greyhounds are used, and 
 half a dozen different sets of these had been brought to 
 camp. Those of Wagner, the " Big D " dogs, as his cow- 
 punchers called them, were handled by Bony Moore, 
 who, with Tom Burnett, the son of our host Burke Bur- 
 nett, took the lead in feats of daring horsemanship, even 
 in that field of daring horsemen. Bevins had brought 
 both greyhounds and rough-haired staghounds from his 
 Texas ranch. So had Cecil Lyon, and though his dogs 
 had chiefly been used in coursing the black-tailed Texas 
 jack-rabbit, they took naturally to the coyote chases. 
 
I02 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 Finally there were Abernethy's dogs, which, together with 
 their master, performed the feats I shall hereafter relate. 
 Abernethy has a homestead of his own not far from Fred- 
 erick, and later I was introduced to his father, an old 
 Confederate soldier, and to his sweet and pretty wife, and 
 their five little children. He had run away with his wife; 
 when they were nineteen and sixteen respectively; but the 
 match had turned out a happy one. Both were partic- 
 ularly fond of music, including the piano, horn, and vio- 
 lin, and they played duets together. General Young, 
 whom the Comanches called " War Bonnet," went in a 
 buggy with Burke Burnett, and as Burnett invariably 
 followed the hounds at full speed in his buggy, and 
 usually succeeded in seeing most of the chase, I felt that 
 the buggy men really encountered greater hazards than 
 anyone else. It was a thoroughly congenial company all 
 through. The weather was good ; we were in the saddle 
 from morning until night; and our camp was in all re- 
 spects all that a camp should be ; so how could we help 
 enjoying ourselves? 
 
 The coursing was done on the flats and great rolling 
 prairies which stretched north from our camp toward the 
 Wichita Mountains and south toward the Red River. 
 There was a certain element of risk in the gallops, be- 
 cause the whole country was one huge prairie-dog town, 
 the prairie-dogs being so numerous that the new towns 
 and the abandoned towns were continuous with one 
 another in every direction. Practically every run we 
 had was through these prairie-dog towns, varied occa- 
 sionally by creeks and washouts. But as we always ran 
 
WOLF-COURSING 
 
 103 
 
 scattered out,, the wonderfully quick cow-ponies, brought 
 up in this country and spending all their time among the 
 prairie-dog towns, were able, even while running at 
 headlong speed, to avoid the holes with a cleverness that 
 was simply marvellous. During our hunt but one horse 
 stepped in a hole ; he turned a complete somerset, though 
 neither he nor his rider was hurt. Stunted mesquite 
 bushes grew here and there in the grass, and there was 
 cactus. As always in prairie-dog towns, there were bur- 
 rowing owls and rattlesnakes. We had to be on our 
 guard that the dogs did not attack the latter. Once we 
 thought a greyhound was certainly bitten. It was a very 
 fast blue bitch, which seized the rattler and literally 
 shook it to pieces. The rattler struck twice at the bitch, 
 but so quick were the bitch's movements that she was not 
 hit either time, and in a second the snake was not merely 
 dead, but in pieces. We usually killed the rattlers with 
 either our quirts or ropes. One which I thus killed was 
 over five feet long. 
 
 By rights there ought to have been carts in which the 
 greyhounds could be drawn until the coyotes were sighted, 
 but there were none, and the greyhounds simply trotted 
 along beside the horses. All of them were fine animals, 
 and almost all of them of recorded pedigree. Coyotes 
 have sharp teeth and bite hard, while greyhounds have 
 thin skins, and many of them were cut in the worries. 
 This was due to the fact that only two or three of them 
 seized by the throat, the others taking hold behind, which 
 of course exposed them to retaliation. Few of them 
 would have been of much use in stopping a big wolf. 
 
I04 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 Abernethy's hounds, however, though they could not kill 
 a big wolf, would stop it, permitting their owner to seize 
 it exactly as he seized coyotes, as hereafter described. 
 He had killed but a few of the big gray wolves; one 
 weighed ninety-seven pounds. He said that there were 
 gradations from this down to the coyotes. A few days 
 before our arrival, after a very long chase, he had cap- 
 tured a black wolf, weighing between fifty and sixty 
 pounds. 
 
 These Southern coyotes or prairie-wolves are only 
 about one-third the size of the big gray timber wolves of 
 the Northern Rockies. They are too small to meddle 
 with full-grown horses and cattle, but pick up young 
 calves and kill sheep, as well as any small domesticated 
 animal that they can get at. The big wolves flee from 
 the neighborhood of anything like close settlements, but 
 coyotes hang around the neighborhood of man much more 
 persistently. They show a fox-like cunning in catching 
 rabbits, prairie-dogs, gophers, and the like. After night- 
 fall they are noisy, and their melancholy wailing and yell- 
 ing are familiar sounds to all who pass over the plains. 
 The young are brought forth in holes in cut banks or 
 similar localities. Within my own experience I have 
 known of the finding of but two families. In one there 
 was but a single family of five cubs and one old animal, 
 undoubtedly the mother ; in the other case there were ten 
 or eleven cubs and two old females which had apparently 
 shared the burrow or cave, though living in separate 
 pockets. In neither case was any full-grown male coyote 
 found in the neighborhood; as regards these particular 
 
Lu O 
 
WOLF-COURSING 
 
 105 
 
 litters, the father seemingly had nothing to do with tak- 
 ing care of or supporting the family. I am not able to 
 say whether this was accidental or whether it is a rule, 
 that only the mother lives with and takes care of the lit- 
 ter; I have heard contrary statements about the matter 
 from hunters who should know. Unfortunately I have 
 learned from long experience that it is only exceptional 
 hunters who can be trusted to give accurate descriptions 
 of the habits of any beast, save such as are connected with 
 its chase. 
 
 Coyotes are sharp, wary, knowing creatures, and on 
 most occasions take care to keep out of harm's way. But 
 individuals among them have queer freaks. On one oc- 
 casion while Sloan Simpson was on the round-up he 
 waked at night to find something on the foot of his 
 bed, its dark form indistinctly visible against the white 
 tarpaulin. He aroused a friend to ask if it could be a 
 dog. While they were cautiously endeavoring to find out 
 what it was, it jumped up and ran off; they then saw that 
 it was a coyote. In a short time it returned again, coming 
 out of the darkness toward one of the cowboys who 
 was awake, and the latter shot it, fearing it might have 
 hydrophobia. But I doubt this, as in such case it would 
 not have curled up and gone to sleep on Simpson's bed- 
 ding. Coyotes are subject to hydrophobia, and when 
 under the spell of the dreadful disease will fearlessly at- 
 tack men. In one case of which I know, a mad coyote 
 coming into camp sprang on a sleeping man who was 
 rolled in his bedding and bit and worried the bedding in 
 the effort to get at him. Two other men hastened to his 
 
io6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 rescue, and the coyote first attacked them and then sud- 
 denly sprang aside and again worried the bedding, by 
 which time one of them was able to get in a shot and 
 killed it. All coyotes, like big wolves, die silently and 
 fight to the last. I had never weighed any coyotes until 
 on this trip. I weighed the twelve which I myself saw 
 caught, and they ran as follows: male, thirty pounds; 
 female, twenty-eight pounds; female, thirty-six pounds; 
 male, thirty-two pounds; male, thirty-four pounds; fe- 
 male, thirty pounds ; female, twenty-seven pounds ; male, 
 thirty-two pounds; male, twenty-nine pounds; young 
 male, twenty-two pounds; male, twenty-nine pounds; fe- 
 male, twenty-seven pounds. Disregarding the young 
 male, this makes an average of just over thirty pounds.^ 
 Except the heaviest female, they were all gaunt and in 
 splendid running trim ; but then I do not remember ever 
 seeing a really fat coyote. 
 
 The morning of the first day of our hunt dawned 
 bright and beautiful, the air just cool enough to be pleas- 
 ant. Immediately after breakfast we jogged off on horse- 
 back, Tom Burnett and Bony Moore in front, with six or 
 eight greyhounds slouching alongside, while Burke Bur- 
 nett and " War Bonnet " drove behind us in the buggy. 
 I was mounted on one of Tom Burnett's favorites, a beau- 
 tiful Kiowa pony. The chuck wagon, together with the 
 
 1 I sent the skins and skulls to Dr. Hart Merriam, the head of the Bio- 
 logical Survey. He wrote me about them : " All but one are the plains coyote. 
 Cams nebracensis. They are not perfectly typical, but are near enough for all 
 practical purposes. The exception is a yearling pup of a much larger species. 
 Whether this is /rustor I dare not say in the present state of knowledge of tfie 
 group." 
 
WOLF-COURSING 107 
 
 relay of greyhounds to be used in the afternoon, was to 
 join us about midday at an appointed place where there 
 was a pool of water. 
 
 We shuffled along, strung out in an irregular line, 
 across a long flat, in places covered with bright-green 
 wild onions ; and then up a gentle slope where the stunted 
 mesquite grew, while the prairie-dogs barked spasmod- 
 ically as we passed their burrows. The low crest, if such 
 it could be called, of the slope was reached only some 
 twenty minutes after we left camp, and hardly had we 
 started down the other side than two coyotes were spied 
 three or four hundred yards in front. Immediately 
 horses and dogs were after them at a headlong, breakneck 
 run, the coyotes edging to the left where the creek bot- 
 tom, with its deep banks and narrow fringes of timber, 
 was about a mile distant. The little wolves knew their 
 danger and ran their very fastest, while the long dogs 
 stretched out after them, gaining steadily. It was evident 
 the chase would be a short one, and there was no need to 
 husband the horses, so every man let his pony go for 
 all there was in him. At such a speed, and especially 
 going down hill, there was not the slightest use in trying 
 to steer clear of the prairie-dog holes; it was best to let 
 the veteran cow-ponies see to that for themselves. They 
 were as eager as their riders, and on we dashed at full 
 speed, curving to the left toward the foot of the slope; 
 we jumped into and out of a couple of broad, shallow 
 washouts, as we tore after the hounds, now nearing their 
 quarry. The rearmost coyote was overtaken just at the 
 edge of the creek; the foremost, which was a few yards 
 
io8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 in advance, made good its escape, as all the dogs promptly 
 tackled the rearmost, tumbling it over into a rather deep 
 pool. The scuffling and splashing told us what was going 
 on, and we reined our horses short up at the brink of 
 the cut bank. The water had hampered the dogs in kill- 
 ing their quarry, only three or four of them being in the 
 pool with him; and of those he had seized one by the 
 nose and was hanging on hard. In a moment one of the 
 cowboys got hold of him, dropped a noose over his head, 
 and dragged him out on the bank, just as the buggy came 
 rattling up at full gallop. Burnett and the general, tak- 
 ing advantage of the curve in our course, had driven 
 across the chord of the arc, and keeping their horses at a 
 run, had seen every detail of the chase and were in at the 
 death. 
 
 In a few minutes the coyote was skinned, the dogs 
 rested, and we were jogging on once more. Hour after 
 hour passed by. We had a couple more runs, but in each 
 case the coyote had altogether too long a start and got 
 away; the dogs no longer being as fresh as they had been. 
 As a rule, although there are exceptions, if the grey- 
 hounds cannot catch the coyote within two or three miles 
 the chances favor the escape of the little wolf. We found 
 that if the wolf had more than half a mile start he got 
 away. As greyhounds hunt by sight, cut banks enable the 
 coyote easily to throw off his pursuers unless they are 
 fairly close up. The greyhounds see the wolf when he is 
 far off, for they have good eyes ; but in the chase, if the 
 going is irregular, they tend to lose him, and they do not 
 depend much on one another in recovering sight of him; 
 
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WOLF-COURSING 109 
 
 on the contrary, the dog is apt to quit when he no longer 
 has the quarry in view. 
 
 At noon we joined the chuck wagon where it stood 
 drawn up on a slope of the treeless, bushless prairie; and 
 the active round-up cook soon had the meal ready. It 
 was the Four Sixes wagon, the brand burned into the 
 wood of the chuck box. Where does a man take more 
 frank enjoyment in his dinner than at the tail end of a 
 chuck wagon? 
 
 Soon after eating we started again, having changed 
 horses and dogs. I was mounted on a Big D cow pony, 
 while Lambert had a dun-colored horse, hard to hold, 
 but very tough and swift. An hour or so after leaving 
 camp we had a four-mile run after a coyote, which finally 
 got away, for it had so long a start that the dogs were 
 done out by the time they came within fair distance. 
 They stopped at a little prairie pool, some of them lying 
 or standing in it, panting violently; and thus we found 
 them as we came stringing up at a gallop. After they 
 had been well rested we started toward camp; but we 
 were down in the creek bottom before we saw another 
 coyote. This one again was a long distance ahead, and 
 I did not suppose there was much chance of our catching 
 him; but away all the dogs and all the riders went at 
 the usual run, and catch him we did, because, as it turned 
 out, the " morning " dogs, which were with the wagon, 
 had spied him first and run him hard, until he was in 
 sight of the " afternoon " dogs, which were with us. I 
 got tangled in a washout, scrambled out, and was gallop- 
 ing along, watching the country in front, when Lambert 
 
no AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 passed me as hard as he could go; I saw him disappear 
 into another washout, and then come out on the other 
 side, while the dogs were driving the coyote at an angle 
 down toward the creek. Pulling short to the right, I got 
 through the creek, hoping the coyote would cross, and the 
 result was that I galloped up to the worry almost as soon 
 as the foremost riders from the other side — a piece of 
 good fortune for which I had only luck to thank. The 
 hounds caught the coyote as he was about crossing the 
 creek. From this point it was but a short distance into 
 camp. 
 
 Again next morning we were oflf before the sun had 
 risen high enough to take away the cool freshness from 
 the air. This day we travelled several miles before we 
 saw our first coyote. It was on a huge, gently sloping 
 stretch of prairie, which ran down to the creek on our 
 right. We were travelling across it strung out in line 
 when the coyote sprang up a good distance ahead of the 
 dogs. They ran straight away from us at first. Then I 
 saw the coyote swinging to the right toward the creek 
 and I half-wheeled, riding diagonally to the line of the 
 chase. This gave me an excellent view of dogs and wolf, 
 •and also enabled me to keep nearly abreast of them. On 
 this particular morning the dogs were Bevin's grey- 
 hounds and staghounds. From where the dogs started 
 they ran about three miles, catching their quarry in the 
 flat where the creek circled around in a bend, and when 
 it was not fifty yards from the timber. By this time the 
 puncher, Bony Moore, had passed me, most of the other 
 riders having been so far to the left when the run began 
 
WOLF-COURSING 1 1 1 
 
 that they were unable to catch up. The little wolf ran 
 well, and the greyhounds had about reached their limit 
 when they caught up with it. But they lasted just long 
 enough to do the work. A fawn-colored greyhound and 
 a black staghound were the first dogs up. The stag- 
 hound tried to seize the coyote, which dodged a little to 
 one side; the fawn-colored greyhound struck and threw 
 it; and in another moment the other dogs were up and 
 the worry began. I was able to see the run so well, be- 
 cause Tom Burnett had mounted me on his fine roan 
 cutting horse. We sat around in a semicircle on the grass 
 until the dogs had been breathed, and then started off 
 again. After some time we struck another coyote, but 
 rather far off, and this time the dogs were not fresh. 
 After running two or three miles he pulled away and we 
 lost him, the dogs refreshing themselves by standing and 
 lying in a shallow prairie pool. 
 
 In the afternoon we again rode off, and this time Ab- 
 ernethy, on his white horse, took the lead, his greyhounds 
 trotting beside him. There was a good deal of rivalry 
 among the various owners of the hounds as to which could 
 do best, and a slight inclination among the cowboys to 
 be jealous of Abernethy. No better riders could be im- 
 agined than these same cowboys, and their greyhounds 
 were stanch and fast; but Abernethy, on his tough white 
 horse, not only rode with great judgment, but showed 
 a perfect knowledge of the coyote, and by his own ex- 
 ertions greatly assisted his hounds. He had found out 
 in his long experience that while the greyhounds could 
 outpace a coyote in a two or three mile run, they would 
 
112 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 then fall behind ; but that after going eight or ten miles, 
 a coyote in turn became exhausted, and if he had been 
 able to keep his hounds going until that time, they could, 
 with his assistance, then stop the quarry. 
 
 We had been shogging along for an hour or more 
 when we put up a coyote and started after it. I was rid- 
 ing the Big D pony I had ridden the afternoon before. 
 It was a good and stout horse, but one which my weight 
 was certain to distress if I tried to go too fast for too 
 long a time. Moreover, the coyote had a long start, and 
 I made up my mind that he would either get away or 
 give us a hard run. Accordingly, as the cowboys started 
 off at their usual headlong pace, I rode behind at a gal- 
 lop, husbanding my horse. For a mile or so the going 
 was very rough, up over and down stony hills and among 
 washouts. Then we went over gently rolling country 
 for another mile or two, and then came to a long broken 
 incline which swept up to a divide some four miles ahead, 
 of us. Lambert had been riding alongside of Abernethy, 
 at the front, but his horse began to play out, and needed 
 to be nursed along, so that he dropped back level with 
 me. By the time I had reached the foot of this incline 
 the punchers, riding at full speed, had shot their bolts, 
 and one by one I passed them, as well as most of the 
 greyhounds. But Abernethy was far ahead, his white 
 horse loping along without showing any signs of distress. 
 Up the long slope I did not dare press my animal, and 
 Abernethy must have been a mile ahead of me when he 
 struck the divide, while where the others were I had no 
 idea, except that they were behind me. When I reached 
 
THE BIG D. COW PONY 
 From a photograph by W. Sloan Simpson 
 
WOLF-COURSING 113 
 
 the divide I was afraid I might have missed Abernethy, 
 but to my delight he was still in sight, far ahead. As 
 we began to go down hill I let the horse fairly race; for 
 by Abernethy's motions I could tell that he was close to 
 the wolf and that it was no longer running in a straight 
 line, so that there was a chance of my overtaking them. 
 In a couple of miles I was close enough to see what was 
 going on. But one greyhound was left with Abernethy. 
 The coyote was obviously tired, and Abernethy, with the 
 aid of his perfectly trained horse, was helping the grey- 
 hound catch it. Twice he headed it, and this enabled 
 me to gain rapidly. They had reached a small unwooded 
 creek by the time I was within fifty yards ; the little wolf 
 tried to break back to the left; Abernethy headed it and 
 rode almost over it, and it gave a wicked snap at his 
 foot, cutting the boot. Then he wheeled and came tow- 
 ard it; again it galloped back, and just as it crossed the 
 creek the greyhound made a rush, pinned it by the hind 
 leg and threw it. There was a scufHe, then a yell from 
 the greyhound as the wolf bit it. At the bite the hound 
 let go and jumped back a few feet, and at the same mo- 
 ment Abernethy, who had ridden his horse right on them 
 as they struggled, leaped off and sprang on top of the 
 wolf. He held the reins of the horse with one hand and 
 thrust the other, with a rapidity and precision even 
 greater than the rapidity of the wolf's snap, into the wolf's 
 mouth, jamming his hand down crosswise between the 
 jaws, seizing the lower jaw and bending it down so that 
 the wolf could not bite him. He had a stout glove on his 
 hand, but this would have been of no avail whatever had 
 
114 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 he not seized the animal just as he did; that is, behind the 
 canines, while his hand pressed the lips against the teeth ; 
 with his knees he kept the wolf from using its forepaws 
 to break the hold, until it gave up struggling. When he 
 thus leaped on and captured this coyote it was entirely 
 free, the dog having let go of it; and he was obliged to 
 keep hold of the reins of his horse with one hand. I was 
 not twenty yards distant at the time, and as I leaped off 
 the horse he was sitting placidly on the live wolf, his 
 hand between its jaws, the greyhound standing beside 
 him, and his horse standing by as placid as he was. In 
 a couple of minutes Fortescue and Lambert came up. It 
 was as remarkable a feat of the kind as I have ever seen. 
 
 Through some oversight we had no straps with us, 
 and Abernethy had lost the wire which he usually carried 
 in order to tie up the wolves' muzzles — for he habitually 
 captured his wolves in this fashion. However, Abernethy 
 regarded the lack of straps as nothing more than a slight 
 bother. Asking one of us to hold his horse, he threw 
 the wolf across in front of the saddle, still keeping his 
 grip on the lower jaw, then mounted and rode off with 
 us on the back track. The wolf was not tied in any way. 
 It was unhurt, and the only hold he had was on its lower 
 jaw. I was surprised that it did not strive to fight with 
 its legs, but after becoming satisfied that it could not bite, 
 it seemed to resign itself to its fate, was fairly quiet, and 
 looked about with its ears pricked forward. The wolves 
 which I subsequently saw him capture, and, having tied 
 up their muzzles, hold before him on the saddle, acted 
 in precisely the same manner. 
 
WOLF-COURSING 115 
 
 The run had been about ten miles in an almost 
 straight line. At the finish no other riders were in sight, 
 but soon after we crossed the divide on our return, and 
 began to come down the long slope toward the creek, we 
 were joined by Tom Burnett and Bony Moore; while 
 some three or four miles ahead on a rise of the prairie 
 we could see the wagon in which Burke Burnett was driv- 
 ing General Young. Other punchers and straggling 
 greyhounds joined us, and as the wolf, after travelling 
 some five miles, began to recover his wind and show a 
 tendency to fight for his freedom, Abernethy tied up his 
 jaws with his handkerchief and handed him over to Bony 
 Moore, who packed him on the saddle with entire indif- 
 ference, the wolf himself showing a curious philosophy. 
 Our horses had recovered their wind and we struck into 
 a gallop down the slope; then as we neared the wagon 
 we broke into a run, Bony Moore brandishing aloft with 
 one hand the live wolf, its jaws tied up with a handker- 
 chief, but otherwise unbound. We stopped for a few 
 minutes with Burnett and the general to tell particulars 
 of the hunt. Then we loped ofif again toward camp, 
 which was some half dozen miles off. I shall always 
 remember this run and the really remarkable feat Aber- 
 nethy performed. Colonel Lyon had seen him catch a 
 big wolf in the same way that he caught this coyote. It 
 was his usual method of catching both coyotes and wolves. 
 Almost equally noteworthy were the way in which he 
 handled and helped his greyhounds, and the judgment, 
 resolution, and fine horsemanship he displayed. His 
 horse showed extraordinary endurance. 
 
ii6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 The third day we started out as usual, the chuck 
 wagon driving straight to a pool far out on the prairie, 
 where we were to meet it for lunch. Chief Quanah's 
 three wives had joined him, together with a small boy 
 and a baby, and they drove in a wagon of their own. 
 Meanwhile the riders and hounds went south nearly to 
 Red River. In the morning we caught four coyotes and 
 had a three miles run after one which started too far 
 ahead of the dogs, and finally got clean away. All the 
 four that we got were started fairly close up, and the run 
 was a breakneck scurry, horses and hounds going as hard 
 as they could put feet to the ground. Twice the cowboys 
 distanced me; and twice the accidents of the chase, the 
 sudden twists and turns of the coyote in his efforts to take 
 advantage of the ground, favored me and enabled me to 
 be close up at the end, when Abernethy jumped off his 
 horse and ran in to where the dogs had the coyote. 
 He was even quicker with his hands than the' wolf's 
 snap, and in a moment he always had the coyote by the 
 lower jaw. 
 
 Between the runs we shogged forward across the great 
 reaches of rolling prairie in the bright sunlight. The air 
 was wonderfully clear, and any object on the sky-line, no 
 matter how small, stood out with startling distinctness. 
 There were few flowers on these dry plains; in sharp con- 
 trast to the flower prairies of southern Texas, which we 
 had left the week before, where many acres for a stretch 
 would be covered by masses of red or white or blue or yel- 
 low blossoms — the most striking of all, perhaps, being the 
 fields of the handsome buffalo clover. As we plodded 
 
ABERNETHY AND COYOTE 
 From a photograph, copyright, 1905, by Alexander Lambert, M.D. 
 
WOLF-COURSING 117 
 
 over the prairie the sharp eyes of the punchers were scan- 
 ning the ground far and near, and sooner or later one of 
 them would spy the motionless form of a coyote, or all 
 would have their attention attracted as it ran like a fleet- 
 ing gray or brown shadow among the grays and browns of 
 the desolate landscape. Immediately dogs and horses 
 would stretch at full speed after it, and everything would 
 be forgotten but the wild exhilaration of the run. 
 
 It was nearly noon when we struck the chuck wagon. 
 Immediately the handy round-up cook began to prepare 
 a delicious dinner, and we ate as men have a right to eat, 
 who have ridden all the morning and are going to ride 
 fresh horses all the afternoon. Soon afterward the horse- 
 wranglers drove up the saddle band, while some of the 
 cow-punchers made a rope corral from the side of the 
 wagon. Into this the horses were driven, one or two 
 breaking back and being brought into the bunch again 
 only after a gallop more exciting than most coyote chases. 
 Fresh ponies were roped out and the saddle band again 
 turned loose. The dogs that had been used during the 
 morning then started campward with the chuck wagon. 
 One of the punchers was riding a young and partially 
 broken horse; he had no bridle, simply a rope around the 
 horse's neck. This man started to accompany the wagon 
 to the camp. 
 
 The rest of us went off at the usual cow-pony trot or 
 running walk. It was an hour or two before we saw any- 
 thing; then a coyote appeared a long way ahead and the 
 dogs raced after him. The first mile was up a gentle 
 slope ; then we turned, and after riding a couple of miles 
 
ii8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 on the level the dogs had shot their bolt and the coyote 
 drew away. When he got too far in front the dogs and 
 foremost riders stopped and waited for the rest of us to 
 overtake them, and shortly afterward Burke Burnett and 
 the general appeared in their buggy. One of the grey- 
 hounds was completely done out and we took some time 
 attending to it. Suddenly one of the men, either Tom 
 Burnett or Bony Moore, called out that he saw the coyote 
 coming back pursued by a horseman. Sure enough, the 
 unfortunate little wolf had run in sight of the wagons, 
 and the puncher on the young unbridled horse immedi- 
 ately took after him, and, in spite of a fall, succeeded in 
 heading him back and bringing him along in our direc- 
 tion, although some three-quarters of a mile away. Im- 
 mediately everyone jumped into his saddle and away we 
 all streamed down a long slope diagonally to the course 
 the coyote was taking. He had a long start, but the dogs 
 were rested, while he had been running steadily, and this 
 fact proved fatal to him. Down the slope to the creek 
 bottom at its end we rode at a run. Then there came a 
 long slope upward, and the heavier among us fell gradu- 
 ally to the rear. When we topped the divide, however, 
 we could see ahead of us the foremost men streaming 
 after the hounds, and the latter running in a way which 
 showed that they were well up on their game. Even a 
 tired horse can go pretty well down hill, and by dint of 
 hard running we who were behind got up in time to see 
 the worry when the greyhounds caught the coyote, by 
 some low ponds in a treeless creek-bed. We had gone 
 about seven miles, the unlucky coyote at least ten. Our 
 
WOLF-COURSING 119 
 
 journey to camp was enlivened by catching another 
 coyote after a short run. 
 
 Next day was the last of our hunt. We started off in 
 the morning as usual, but the buggy men on this occasion 
 took with them some trail hounds, which were managed 
 by a sergeant of the regular army, a game sportsman. 
 They caught two coons in the timber of a creek two or 
 three miles to the south of the camp. Meanwhile the 
 rest of us, riding over the prairie, saw the greyhounds 
 catch two coyotes, one after a rather long run and one 
 after a short one. Then, we turned our faces toward 
 camp. I saw Abernethy, with three or four of his own 
 hounds, riding off to one side, but unfortunately I did 
 not pay any heed to him, as I supposed the hunting was 
 at an end. But when we reached camp Abernethy was 
 not there, nor did he turn up until we were finishing 
 lunch. Then he suddenly appeared, his tired greyhounds 
 trotting behind him, while he carried before him on the 
 saddle a live coyote, with its muzzle tied up, and a dead 
 coyote strapped behind his saddle. Soon after leaving 
 us he had found a coyote, and after a good run the dogs 
 had stopped it and he had jumped off and captured it in 
 his usual fashion. Then while riding along, holding the 
 coyote before him on the saddle, he put up another one. 
 His dogs were tired, and he himself was of course greatly 
 hampered in such a full-speed run by having the live 
 wolf on the saddle in front of him. One by one the dogs 
 gave out, but his encouragement and assistance kept two 
 of them to their work, and after a run of some seven miles 
 the coyote was overtaken. It was completely done out 
 
I20 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 and would probably have died by itself, even if the hounds 
 had not taken part in the killing. Hampered as he was, 
 Abernethy could not take it alive in his usual fashion. 
 So when it was dead he packed it behind his horse and 
 rode back in triumph. The live wolf, as in every other 
 case where one was brought into camp, made curiously 
 little efifort to fight with its paws, seeming to acquiesce in 
 its captivity, and looking around, with its ears thrust for- 
 ward, as if more influenced by curiosity than by any other 
 feeling. 
 
 After lunch we rode toward town, stopping at night- 
 fall to take supper by the bank of a creek. We entered 
 the town after dark, some twenty of us on horseback. 
 Wagner was riding with us, and he had set his heart 
 upon coming into and through the town in true cowboy 
 style ; and it was he who set the pace. We broke into a 
 lope a mile outside the limits, and by the time we struck 
 the main street the horses were on a run and we tore down 
 like a whirlwind until we reached the train. Thus ended 
 as pleasant a hunting trip as any one could imagine. The 
 party got seventeen coyotes all told, for there were some 
 runs which I did not see at all, as now and then both 
 men and dogs would get split into groups. 
 
 On this hunt we did not see any of the big wolves, the 
 so-called buffalo or timber wolves, which I hunted in the 
 old days on the Northern cattle plains. Big wolves are 
 found in both Texas and Oklahoma, but they are rare 
 compared to the coyotes ; and they are great wanderers. 
 Alone or in parties of three or four or half a dozen they 
 travel to and fro across the country, often leaving a dis- 
 
WOLF-COURSING 121 
 
 trict at once if they are molested. Coyotes are more or 
 less plentiful ever3rwhere throughout the West in thinly 
 settled districts, and they often hang about in the 
 immediate neighborhood of towns. They do enough 
 damage to make farmers and ranchers kill them when- 
 ever the chance offers. But this damage is not appreci- 
 able when compared with the ravages of their grim big 
 brother, the gray wolf, which, wherever it exists in num- 
 bers, is a veritable scourge to the stockmen. 
 
 Colonel Lyon's hounds were, as I have said, used 
 chiefly after jack-rabbits. He had frequently killed coy- 
 otes with them, however, and on two or three occasions 
 one of the big gray wolves. At the time when he did 
 most of his wolf-hunting he had with the greyhounds a 
 huge fighting dog, a Great Dane, weighing one hundred 
 and forty-five pounds. In spite of its weight this dog 
 could keep up well in a short chase, and its ferocious tem- 
 per and enormous weight and strength made it invaluable 
 at the bay. Whether the quarry were a gray wolf or 
 coyote mattered not in the least to it, and it made its 
 assaults with such headlong fury that. it generally escaped 
 damage. On the two or three occasions when the animal 
 bayed was a big wolf the greyhounds did not dare tackle 
 it, jumping about in an irregular circle and threatening 
 the wolf until the fighting dog came up. The latter at 
 once rushed in, seizing its antagonist by the throat or 
 neck and throwing it. Doubtless it would have killed 
 the wolf unassisted, but the greyhounds always joined in 
 the killing; and once thrown, the wolf could never get 
 on his legs. In these encounters the dog was never seri- 
 
122 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 ously hurt. Rather curiously, the only bad wound it ever 
 received was from a coyote ; the little wolf, not one-third 
 of its weight, managing to inflict a terrific gash down its 
 huge antagonist's chest, nearly tearing it open. But of 
 course a coyote against such a foe could not last much 
 longer than a rat pitted against a terrier. 
 
 Big wolves and coyotes are found side by side 
 throughout the Western United States, both varying so 
 in size that if a sufficient number of specimens, from dif- 
 ferent localities, are examined it will be found that there 
 is a complete intergradation in both stature and weight. 
 To the northward the coyotes disappear, and the big 
 wolves grow larger and larger until in the arctic regions 
 they become veritable giants. At Point Barrow Mr. E. 
 A. Mcllhenny had six of the eight " huskies " of his dog 
 team killed and eaten by a huge white dog wolf. At last 
 he shot it, and found that it weighed one hundred and 
 sixty-one pounds. 
 
 Good trail hounds can run down a wolf. A year ago 
 Jake Borah's pack in northwestern Colorado ran a big 
 wolf weighing one hundred and fifteen pounds to bay in 
 but little over an hour. He then stood with his back to a 
 rock, and though the dogs formed a semicircle around 
 him, they dared not tackle him. Jake got up and shot him. 
 Unless well trained and with the natural fighting edge 
 neither trail hounds (fox-hounds) nor greyhounds can 
 or will kill a big wolf, and under ordinary circumstances, 
 no matter how numerous, they make but a poor showing 
 against one. But big ninety-pound or one hundred- 
 pound greyhounds, specially bred and trained for the 
 
WOLF-COURSING 
 
 123 
 
 purpose, stand on an entirely different footing. Three 
 or four of these dogs, rushing in together and seizing the 
 wolf by the throat, will kill him, or worry him until he 
 is helpless. On several occasions the Colorado Springs 
 greyhounds have performed this feat. Johnny Goff 
 owned a large, fierce dog, a cross between what he called 
 a Siberian bloodhound (I suppose some animal like a 
 Great Dane) and an ordinary hound, which, on one occa- 
 sion when he had shot at and broken the hind leg of a big 
 wolf, ran it down and killed it. On the other hand, wolves 
 will often attack dogs. In March of the present year — 
 nineteen hundred and five — Goff's dogs were scattered 
 over a hillside hunting a bobcat, when he heard one of 
 them yell, and looking up saw that two wolves were chas- 
 ing it. The other dogs were so busy puzzling out the 
 cat's trail that they never noticed what was happening. 
 Goff called aloud, whereupon the wolves stopped. He 
 shot one and the other escaped. He thinks that they 
 would have overtaken and killed the hound in a minute 
 or two if he had not interfered. 
 
 The big wolves shrink back before the growth of the 
 thickly settled districts, and in the Eastern States they 
 often tend to disappear even from districts that are unin- 
 habited save by a few wilderness hunters. They have thus 
 disappeared almost entirely from Maine, the Adiron- 
 dacks, and the Alleghanies, although here and there they 
 are said to be returning to their old haunts. Their dis- 
 appearance is rather mysterious in some instances, for 
 they are certainly not all killed off. The black bear is 
 much easier killed, yet the black bear holds its own in 
 
124 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 many parts of the land from which the wolf has vanished. 
 No animal is quite so difficult to kill as is the wolf, 
 whether by poison or rifle or hound. Yet, after a com- 
 paratively few have been slain, the entire species will 
 perhaps vanish from certain localities. In some localities 
 even the cougar, the easiest of all game to kill with 
 hounds, holds its own better. This, however, is not gen- 
 erally true. 
 
 But with all wild animals, it is a noticeable fact that 
 a course of contact with man continuing over many gen- 
 erations of animal life causes a species so to adapt itself 
 to its new surroundings that it can hold its own far better 
 than formerly. When white men take up a new country, 
 the game, and especially the big game, being entirely un- 
 used to contend with the new foe, succumb easily, and 
 are almost completely killed out. If any individuals sur- 
 vive at all, however, the succeeding generations are far 
 more difficult to exterminate than were their ancestors, 
 and they cling much more tenaciously to their old homes. 
 The game to be found in old and long-settled countries is 
 of course much more wary and able to take care of itself 
 than the game of an untrodden wilderness ; it is the wil- 
 derness life, far more than the actual killing of the wil- 
 derness game, which tests the ability of the wilderness 
 hunter. 
 
 After a time, game may even, for the time being, in- 
 crease in certain districts where settlements are thin. This 
 was true of the wolves throughout the northern cattle 
 country, in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and the west- 
 ern ends of the Dakotas. In the old days wolves were 
 
ABERNETHY RETURNS FROM THE HUNT 
 From a photograph, copyright, 1905, by Alexander Lambert, M.D. 
 
WOLF-COURSING 125 
 
 very plentiful throughout this region, closely following 
 the huge herds of buffaloes. The white men who fol- 
 lowed these herds as professional buffalo-hunters were 
 often accompanied by other men, known as wolfers, who 
 poisoned these wolves for the sake of their fur. With the 
 disappearance of the buffalo the wolves diminished in 
 numbers so that they also seemed to disappear. Then in 
 the late eighties or early nineties the wolves began again 
 to increase in numbers until they became once more as 
 numerous as ever and infinitely more wary and difficult 
 to kill ; though as they were nocturnal in their habits they 
 were not often seen. Along the Little Missouri and in 
 many parts of Montana and Wyoming this increase was 
 very noticeable during the last decade of the nineteenth 
 century. They were at that time the only big animals 
 of the region which had increased in numbers. Such an 
 increase following a previous decrease in the same region 
 was both curious and interesting. I never knew the 
 wolves to be so numerous or so daring in their assaults 
 upon stock in the Little Missouri country as in the years 
 1894 to 1896 inclusive. I am urtable wholly to account 
 for these changes. The first great diminution in the num- 
 bers of the wolves is only partially to be explained by 
 the poisoning; yet they seemed to disappear almost every- 
 where and for a number of years continued scarce. Then 
 they again became plentiful, reappearing in districts 
 from whence they had entirely vanished, and appearing 
 in new districts where they had been hitherto unknown. 
 Then they once more began to diminish in number. In 
 northwestern Colorado, in the White River country, cou- 
 
126 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 gars fairly swarmed in the early nineties, while up to that 
 time the big gray wolves were almost or entirely un- 
 known. Then they began to come in, and increased 
 steadily in numbers, while the cougars diminished, so 
 that by the winter of 1902-3 they much outnumbered 
 the big cats, and committed great ravages among the 
 stock. The settlers were at their wits' ends how to deal 
 with the pests. At last a trapper came in, a shiftless fel- 
 low, but extraordinarily proficient in his work. He had 
 some kind of scent, the secret of which he would not re- 
 veal, which seemed to drive the wolves nearly crazy with 
 desire. In one winter in the neighborhood of the Key- 
 stone Ranch he trapped forty-two big gray wolves; 
 they still outnumber the cougars, which in that neigh- 
 borhood have been nearly killed out, but they are no 
 longer abundant. 
 
 At present wolves are decreasing in numbers all over 
 Colorado, as they are in Montana, Wyoming, and the 
 Dakotas. In some localities traps have been found 
 most effective; in others, poison; and in yet others, 
 hounds. I am inclined to think that where they have 
 been pursued in one manner for a long time any new 
 method will at first prove more efficacious. After a very 
 few wolves have been poisoned or trapped, the survivors 
 become so wary that only a master in the art can do any- 
 thing with them, while there are always a few wolves 
 which cannot be persuaded to touch a bait save under 
 wholly exceptional circumstances. From association 
 with the old she wolves the cubs learn as soon as they 
 are able to walk to avoid man's traces in every way, and 
 
WOLF-COURSING 127 
 
 to look out for traps and poison. They are so shy and 
 show such extraordinary cunning in hiding and slinking 
 out of the way of the hunter that they are rarely killed 
 with the rifle. Personally I never shot but one. A bold 
 and good rider on a first-rate horse can, however, run 
 down even a big gray wolf in fair chase, and either rope 
 or shoot it. I have known a number of cow-punchers thus 
 to rope wolves when they happened to run across them 
 after they had gorged themselves on their quarry. A 
 former Colorado ranchman, Mr. Henry N. Pancoast, 
 who had done a good deal of wolf-hunting, and had 
 killed one which, judging by its skin, was a veritable 
 monster, wrote me as follows about his experiences: 
 
 " I captured nearly all my wolves by running them 
 down and then either roped or shot them. I had one 
 mount that had great endurance, and when riding him 
 never failed to give chase to a wolf if I had the time to 
 spare; and never failed to get my quarry but two or three 
 times. I roped four full-grown and two cubs and shot 
 five full-grown and three cubs — the large wolf in ques- 
 tion being killed that way. And he was by far the hardest 
 proposition I ever tried, and I candidly think I run him 
 twenty miles before overhauling and shooting him (he 
 showed too much fight to use a rope) . As it was almost 
 dark, concluded to put him on horse and skin at ranch, 
 but had my hands full to get him on the saddle, was so 
 very heavy. My plan in running wolves down was to 
 get about three hundred yards from them, and then to 
 keep that distance until the wolf showed signs of fatigue, 
 when a little spurt would generally succeed in landing 
 
128 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 him. In the case of the large one, however, I reckoned 
 without my host, as the wolf had as much go left as the 
 horse, so I tried slowing down to a walk and let the wolf 
 go ; he . . . came down to a little trot and soon placed 
 a half mile between us, and finally went out of sight over 
 a high hill. I took my time and on reaching top of hill 
 saw wolf about four hundred yards off, and as I now 
 had a down grade managed to get my tired horse on a 
 lope and was soon up to the wolf, which seemed all stiff- 
 ened up, and one shot from my Winchester finished him. 
 We always had poison out, as wolves and coyotes killed 
 a great many calves. Never poisoned but two wolves, 
 and those were caught with fresh antelope liver and 
 entrails (coyotes were easily poisoned)." 
 
 In the early nineties the ravages of the wolves along 
 the Little Missouri became so serious as thoroughly to 
 arouse the stockmen. Not only colts and calves, and 
 young trail stock, but in midwinter full-grown horses 
 and steers were continually slain. The county authori- 
 ties put a bounty of three dollars each on wolf scalps, to 
 which the ranchmen of the neighborhood added a further 
 bounty of five dollars. This made eight dollars for every 
 wolf, and as the skin was also worth something, the busi- 
 ness of killing wolves became profitable. Quite a number 
 of men tried poisoning or trapping, but the most success- 
 ful wolf hunter on the Little Missouri at that time was 
 a man who did not rely on poison at all, but on dogs. 
 He was named Massingale, and he always had a pack 
 of at least tiwenty hounds. The number varied, for a wolf 
 at bay is a terrible fighter, with jaws like those of a steel 
 
BONY MOORE AND THE COYOTE 
 From a photograph, copyright, iqo?, by Alexander Lambert, M.D. 
 
WOLF-COURSING 129 
 
 trap, and teeth that cut like knives, so that the dogs were 
 continually disabled and sometimes killed, and the hunter 
 had always to be on the watch to add animals to his pack. 
 It was not a good-looking pack, but it was thoroughly fit 
 for its own work. Most of the dogs were greyhounds, 
 whether rough or smooth haired, but many of them were 
 big mongrels, part greyhound and part some other breed, 
 such as bulldog, mastifif, Newfoundland, bloodhound, or 
 collie. The only two requisites were that the dogs should 
 run fast and fight gamely; and in consequence they 
 formed as wicked, hard-biting a crew as ever ran down 
 and throttled a wolf. They were usually taken out ten 
 at a time, and by their aid Massingale killed over two 
 hundred wolves, including cubs. Of course there was 
 no pretence of giving the game fair play. The wolves 
 were killed as vermin, not for sport. The greatest havoc 
 was in the spring-time, when the she- wolves were fol- 
 lowed to their dens. Some of the hounds were very fast, 
 and they could usually overtake a young or weak wolf; 
 but an old dog-wolf, with a good start, unless run into at 
 once, would ordinarily get away if he were in running 
 trim. Frequently, however, he was caught when not in 
 running trim, for the hunte'r was apt to find him when he 
 had killed a calf or takeh part in dragging down a horse 
 or steer, and was gorged with meat. Under these cir- 
 cumstances he could not run long before the pack. If 
 possible, as with all such packs, the hunter himself got 
 up in time to end the worry by a stab of his hunting-knife ; 
 but unless he was quick he had nothing to do, for the pack 
 was thoroughly competent to do its own killing. Grim 
 
3° 
 
 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 fighter though a great dog-wolf is, he stands no show be- 
 fore the onslaught of ten such hounds, agile and power- 
 ful, who rush on their antagonist in a body. Massingale's 
 dogs possessed great power in their jaws, and unless he 
 was up within two or three minutes after the wolf was 
 overtaken, they tore him to death, though one or more 
 of their number might be killed or crippled in the fight. 
 The wolf might be throttled without having the hide 
 on its neck torn ; but when it was stretched out the dogs 
 ripped open its belly. Dogs do not get their teeth 
 through the skin of an old cougar ; but they will tear up 
 either a bobcat or coyote. 
 
 In 1894 and 1896 I saw a number of wolves on the 
 Little Missouri, although I was not looking for them. I 
 frequently came upon the remains of sheep and young 
 stock which they had killed ; and once, upon the top of 
 a small plateau, I found the body of a large steer, while 
 the torn and trodden ground showed that he had fought 
 hard for his life before succumbing. There had been 
 two wolves engaged in the work, and the cunning beasts 
 had evidently acted in concert. Apparently, while one 
 attracted the steer's attention in front, the other, accord- 
 ing to the invariable wolf habit, attacked him from be- 
 hind, hamstringing him and tearing out his flanks. His 
 body was still warm when I came up, but the marauders 
 had slunk off, either seeing or smelling me. There was 
 no mistaking the criminals, however, for, unlike bears, 
 which usually attack an animal at the withers, or cougars, 
 which attack the throat or head, wolves almost invariably 
 attack their victim at the hind quarters and begin first 
 
WOLF-COURSING 
 
 131 
 
 on the hams or flanks, if the animal is of any size. Owing 
 to their often acting in couples or in packs, the big wolves 
 do more damage to horned stock than cougars, but they 
 are not as dangerous to colts, and they are not nearly as 
 expert as the big cats in catching deer and mountain 
 sheep. When food is plentiful, good observers say that 
 they will not try to molest foxes; but, if hungry, they 
 certainly snap them up as quickly as they would fawns. 
 Ordinarily they show complete tolerance of the coyotes ; 
 yet one bitter winter I knew of a coyote being killed and 
 eaten by a wolf. 
 
 Not only do the habits of wild beasts change under 
 changing conditions as time goes on, but there seems to 
 be some change even in their appearance. Thus the early 
 observers of the game of the Little Missouri, those who 
 wrote in the first half of the nineteenth century, spoke 
 much of the white wolves which were then so common in 
 the region. These white wolves represented in all prob- 
 ability only a color variety of the ordinary gray wolf ; and 
 it is difficult to say exactly why they disappeared. Yet 
 when about the year 1890 wolves again grew common 
 these white wolves were very, very rare; indeed I never 
 personally heard of but one being seen. This was on the 
 Upper Cannonball in 1892. A nearly black wolf was 
 killed not far from this spot in the year 1893. At the 
 present day black wolves are more common than white 
 wolves, which are rare indeed. But all these big wolves 
 are now decreasing in numbers, and in most places are 
 decreasing rapidly. 
 
 It will be noticed that on some points my observations 
 
132 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 about wolves are in seeming conflict with those of other 
 observers as competent as I am; but I think the conflict 
 is more seeming than real, and I have concluded to let 
 my words stand. The great book of nature contains many 
 pages which are hard to read, and at times conscientious 
 students may well draw different interpretations of the 
 obscure and least-known texts. It may not be that either 
 observer is at fault, but what is true of an animal in one 
 locality may not be true of the same animal in another, 
 and even in the same locality two individuals of the same 
 species may differ widely in their traits and habits. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 HUNTING IN THE CATTLE COUNTRY; THE PRONGBUCK 
 
 The prongbuck is the most characteristic and distinc- 
 tive of American game animals. Zoologically speaking, 
 its position is unique. It is the only hollow-horned 
 ruminant which sheds its horns, or rather the horn 
 sheaths. We speak of it as an antelope, and it does of 
 course represent on our prairies the antelopes of the Old 
 World; but it stands apart from all other horned animals. 
 Its place in the natural world is almost as lonely as that 
 of the giraffe. In all its ways and habits it differs as much 
 from deer and elk as from goat and sheep. Now that the 
 buffalo has gone, it is the only game really at home on the 
 wide plains. It is a striking-looking little creature, with 
 its prominent eyes, single-pronged horns, and the sharply 
 contrasted white, brown and reddish of its coat. The 
 brittle hair is stiff, coarse and springy; on the rump it is 
 brilliantly white, and is erected when the animal is 
 alarmed or excited, so as to be very conspicuous. In 
 marked contrast to deer, antelope never seek to elude ob- 
 servation; all they care for is to be able themselves to see. 
 As they have good noses and wonderful eyes, and as they 
 live by preference where there is little or no cover, shots 
 at them are usually obtained at far longer range than is 
 the case with other game ; and yet, as they are easily seen, 
 
 133 
 
134 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 and often stand looking at the hunter just barely within 
 very long rifle-range, they are always tempting their pur- 
 suer to the expenditure of cartridges. More shots are 
 wasted at antelope than at any other game. They would 
 be even harder to secure were it not that they are subject 
 to fits of panic folly, or excessive curiosity, which occa- 
 sionally put them fairly at the mercy of the rifle-bearing 
 hunter. 
 
 In the old days the prongbuck was found as soon as 
 the westward-moving traveller left the green bottom- 
 lands of the Mississippi, and from thence across to the 
 dry, open valleys of California, and northward to Canada 
 and southward into Mexico. It has everywhere been 
 gradually thinned out, and has vanished altogether from 
 what were formerly the extreme easterly and westerly 
 limits of its range. The rates of extermination of the dif- 
 ferent kinds of big game have been very unequal in 
 different localities. Each kind of big game has had its 
 own peculiar habitat in which it throve best, and each 
 has also been found more or less plentifully in other re- 
 gions where the circumstances were less favorable ; and in 
 these comparatively unfavorable regions it early tends 
 to disappear before the advance of man. In consequence, 
 where the ranges of the different game animals overlap 
 and are intertwined, one will disappear first in one local- 
 ity, and another will disappear first where the conditions 
 are different. Thus the whitetail deer had thrust for- 
 ward along the very narrow river bottoms into the do- 
 main of the mule-deer and the prongbuck among the foot- 
 hills of the Rocky Mountains, and in these places it was 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 135 
 
 exterminated from the narrow strips which it inhabited 
 long before the mule-deer vanished from the high hills, 
 or the prongbuck from the great open plains. But along 
 great portions of the Missouri there are plenty of white- 
 tails yet left in the river bottoms, while the mule-deer 
 that once dwelt in the broken hills behind them, and the 
 prongbuck which lived on the prairie just back of these 
 bluffs, have both disappeared. In the same way the mule- 
 deer and the prongbuck are often found almost inter- 
 mingled through large regions in which plains, hills, and 
 mountains alternate. If such a region is mainly moun- 
 tainous, but contains a few valleys and table- lands, the 
 prongbuck is sure to vanish from the latter before the 
 mule-deer vanishes from the broken country. But if the 
 region is one primarily of plains, with here and there 
 rows of rocky hills in which the mule-deer is found, the 
 latter is killed off long before the prongbuck can be 
 hunted out of the great open stretches. The same is true 
 of the pronghorn and the wapiti. The size and value of 
 the wapiti make it an object of eager persecution on the 
 part of hunters. But as it can live in the forest-clad fast- 
 nesses of the Rockies, into which settlement does not go, 
 it outlasts over great regions the pronghorn, whose abode 
 is easily penetrated by sheep and cattle men. Under any- 
 thing like even conditions, however, the prongbuck, of 
 course, outlasts the wapiti. This was the case on the Lit- 
 tle Missouri. On that stream the bighorn also outlasted 
 the wapiti. In 1881 wapiti were still much more plenti- 
 ful than bighorns. Within the next decade they had 
 almost totally disappeared, while the bighorn was still 
 
136 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 to be found; I shot one and saw others in 1893, at which 
 time I had not authentic information of a single wapiti 
 remaining anywhere on the river in my neighborhood, 
 although it is possible that one or two still lurked in some 
 out-of-the-way recess. In Colorado at one time the big- 
 horn was nearly exterminated, while the wapiti still 
 withstood the havoc made among its huge herds ; then fol- 
 lowed a period in which the rapidity of destruction of 
 the wapiti increased far beyond that of the bighorn. 
 
 I mention these facts partly because they are of inter- 
 est in themselves, but chiefly because they tend to explain 
 the widely different opinions expressed by competent ob- 
 servers about what superficially seem to be similar facts. 
 It cannot be too often repeated that allowance must be 
 made for the individual variability in the traits and char- 
 acters of animals of the same species, and especially of 
 the same species under different circumstances and in dif- 
 ferent localities; and allowance must also be made for 
 the variability of the individual factor in the observers 
 themselves. Many seemingly contradictory observations 
 of the habits of deer, wapiti, and prongbuck will be 
 found in books by the best hunters. Take such questions 
 as the keenness of sight of the deer as compared with the 
 prongbuck, and of the pugnacity of the wapiti, both act- 
 ual and relative, and a wide difference of opinion will be 
 found in three such standard works as Dodge's " The 
 Hunting-grounds of the Great West," Caton's " Deer and 
 Antelope of America," and the contributions of Mr. 
 Grinnell to the " Century Book of Sports." Sometimes 
 the difference will be in mere matters of opinion, as, for 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 137 
 
 instance, in the belief as to the relative worth of the sport 
 furnished by the chase of the different creatures; but 
 sometimes there is a direct conflict of fact. Colonel 
 Dodge, for instance, has put it upon record that the wapiti 
 is an exceedingly gentle animal, less dangerous than a 
 whitetail or blacktail buck in a close encounter, and that 
 the bulls hardly ever fight among themselves. My own 
 experience leads me to traverse in the most emphatic 
 manner every one of these conclusions, and all hunters 
 whom I have met feel exactly as I do ; yet no one would 
 question for a moment Colonel Dodge's general com- 
 petency as an observer. In the same way Mr. Grinnell 
 has a high opinion of the deer's keenness of sight. Judge 
 Caton absolutely disagrees with him, and my own ex- 
 perience tends to agree with that of the Judge — at least 
 to the extent of placing the deer's vision far below that 
 of the prongbuck and even that of the bighorn, and only 
 on a par with that of the wapiti. Yet Mr. Grinnell is 
 an unusually competent observer, whose opinion on any 
 such subject is entitled to unqualified respect. 
 
 Difference in habits may be due simply to difference 
 of locality, or to the need of adaptation to new conditions. 
 The prongbuck's habits about migration offer examples 
 of the former kind of difference. Over portions of its 
 range the prongbuck is not migratory at all. In other 
 parts the migrations are purely local. In yet other re- 
 gions the migrations are continued for great distances, im- 
 mense multitudes of the animals going to and fro in the 
 spring and fall along well-beaten tracks. I know of one 
 place in New Mexico where the pronghorn herds are ten- 
 
138 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 ants of certain great plains throughout the entire year. I 
 know another region in northwestern Colorado where the 
 very few prongbucks still left, though they shift from val- 
 ley to valley, yet spend the whole year in the same stretch 
 of rolling, barren country. On the Little Missouri, how- 
 ever, during the eighties and early nineties, there was 
 a very distinct though usually local migration. Before 
 the Black Hills had been settled they were famous win- 
 tering places for the antelope, which swarmed from 
 great distances to them when cold weather approached; 
 those which had summered east of the Big Missouri actu- 
 ally swam the river in great herds, on their journey to 
 the Hills. The old hunters around my ranch insisted 
 that formerly the prongbuck had for the most part trav- 
 elled from the Little Missouri Bad Lands into the Black 
 Hills for the winter. 
 
 When I was ranching on that river, however, this 
 custom no longer obtained, for the Black Hills were too 
 well settled, and the herds of prongbuck that wintered 
 there were steadily diminishing in numbers. At that 
 time, from 1883 to 1896, the seasonal change in habits, 
 and shift of position, of the prongbucks were well 
 marked. As soon as the new grass sprang they appeared 
 in great numbers upon the plains. They were especially 
 fond of the green, tender blades that came up where the 
 country had been burned over. If the region had been 
 devastated by prairie fires in the fall, the next spring it 
 was certain to contain hundreds and thousands of prong- 
 bucks. All through the summer they remained out on 
 these great open plains, coming to drink at the little pools 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 139 
 
 in the creek beds, and living where there was no shelter 
 of any kind. As winter approached they began to gather 
 in bands. Some of these bands apparently had regular 
 wintering places to the south of us, in Pretty Buttes and 
 beyond; and close to my ranch, at the crossing of the 
 creek called Beaver, there were certain trails which these 
 antelope regularly travelled, northward in the spring and 
 southward in the fall. But other bands would seek out 
 places in the Bad Lands near by, gathering together on 
 some succession of plateaus which were protected by 
 neighboring hills from the deep drifts of snow. Here 
 they passed the winter, on short commons, it is true (they 
 graze, not browsing like deer), but without danger of 
 perishing in the snow-drifts. On the other hand, if the 
 skin hunters discovered such a wintering place, they were 
 able to butcher practically the entire band, if they so de- 
 sired, as the prongbucks were always most reluctant to 
 leave such a chosen ground. 
 
 Normally the prongbuck avoids both broken ground 
 and timber. It is a queer animal, with keen senses, but 
 with streaks of utter folly in its character. Time and 
 again I have known bands rush right by me, when I 
 happened to surprise them feeding near timber or hills, 
 and got between them and the open plains. The animals 
 could have escaped without the least difficulty if they had 
 been willing to go into the broken country, or through 
 even a few rods of trees and brush; and yet they preferred 
 to rush madly by me at close range, in order to get out 
 to their favorite haunts. But nowadays there are certain 
 localities where the prongbucks spend a large part of 
 
140 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 their time in the timber or in rough, hilly country, feed- 
 ing and bringing up their young in such localities. 
 
 Typically, however, the prongbuck is preeminently a 
 beast of the great open plains, eating their harsh, dry 
 pasturage, and trusting to its own keen senses and speed 
 for its safety. All the deer are fond of skulking; the 
 whitetail preeminently so. The prongbuck, on the con- 
 trary, never endeavors to elude observation. Its sole aim 
 is to be able to see its enemies, and it cares nothing what- 
 ever about its enemies seeing it. Its coloring is very 
 conspicuous, and is rendered still more so by its habit 
 of erecting the white hair on its rump. It has a very 
 erect carriage, and when it thinks itself in danger it 
 always endeavors to get on some crest or low hill from 
 which it can look all about. The big bulging eyes, sit- 
 uated at the base of the horns, scan the horizon far and 
 near like twin telescopes. They pick out an object at 
 such a distance that it would entirely escape the notice of 
 a deer. When suspicious, they have a habit of barking, 
 uttering a sound something like " kau," and repeating 
 it again and again, as they walk up and down, en- 
 deavoring to find out if danger lurks in the unusual ob- 
 ject. They are extremely curious, and in the old days 
 it was often possible to lure them toward the hunter by 
 waving a red handkerchief to and fro on a stick, or even 
 by lying on one's back and kicking the legs. Nowadays, 
 however, there are very few localities indeed in which 
 they are sufficiently unsophisticated to make it worth 
 while trying these time-honored tricks of the long-van- 
 ished trappers and hunters. 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 141 
 
 Along the Little Missouri the fawns, sometimes one 
 and sometimes two in number, were dropped in May or 
 early in June. At that time the antelope were usually 
 found in herds which the mother did not leave until she 
 was about to give birth to the fawn. During the first 
 few days the fawn's safety is to be found only in its not 
 attracting attention. During this time it normally lies 
 perfectly flat on the ground, with its head outstretched, 
 and makes no effort to escape. While out on the spring 
 round-up I have come across many of these fawns. Once, 
 in company with several cowboys, I was riding behind 
 a bunch of cattle which, as we hurried them, spread out 
 in open order ahead of us. Happening to cast down my 
 eyes I saw an antelope fawn directly ahead of me. The 
 bunch of cattle had passed all around it, but it made not 
 the slightest sign, not even when I halted, got off my 
 pony, and took it up in my arms. It was useless to take 
 it to camp and try to rear it, and so I speedily put it 
 down again. Scanning the neighborhood, I saw the doe 
 hanging about some half a mile off, and when I looked 
 back from the next divide I could see her gradually draw- 
 ing near to the fawn. 
 
 If taken when very young, antelope make cunning 
 and amusing pets, and I have often seen them around the 
 ranches. There was one in the ranch of a Mrs. Blank 
 who had a station on the Deadwood stage line some eigh- 
 teen years ago. She was a great worker in buckskin, and 
 I got her to make me the buckskin shirt I still use. There 
 was an antelope fawn that lived at the house, wandering 
 wherever it wished ; but it would not permit me to touch 
 
142 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 it. As I sat inside the house it would come in and hop 
 up on a chair, looking at me sharply all the while. No 
 matter how cautiously I approached, I could never put 
 my hand upon it, as at the last moment it would spring 
 off literally as quick as a bird would fly. One of my 
 neighbors on the Little Missouri, Mr. Howard Eaton, 
 had at one time upon his ranch three little antelope whose 
 foster-mother was a sheep, and who were really absurdly 
 tame. I was fond of patting them and of giving them 
 crusts, and the result was that they followed me about 
 so closely that I had to be always on the lookout to see 
 that I did not injure them. They were on excellent terms 
 with the dogs, and were very playful. It was a comic 
 sight to see them skipping and hopping about the old ewe 
 when anything happened to alarm her and she started off 
 at a clumsy waddle. Nothing could surpass the lameness 
 of the antelope that are now under Mr. Hornaday's care 
 at the Bronx Zoological Garden in New York. The last 
 time that I visited the garden some repairs were being 
 made inside the antelope enclosure, and a dozen work- 
 men had gone in to make them. The antelope regarded 
 the workmen with a friendliness and curiosity untem- 
 pered by the slightest touch of apprehension. When the 
 men took off their coats the little creatures would nose 
 them over to see if they contained anything edible, and 
 they would come close up and watch the men plying the 
 pick with the utmost interest. Mr. Hornaday took us in- 
 side, and they all came up in the most friendly manner. 
 One or two of the bucks would put their heads against 
 our legs and try to push us around, but not roughly. Mr. 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 143 
 
 Hornaday told me that he was having great difficulty, 
 exactly as with the mule-deer, in acclimatizing the ante- 
 lope, especially as the food was so different from what 
 they were accustomed to in their native haunts. 
 
 The wild fawns are able to run well a few days after 
 they are born. They then accompany the mother every- 
 where. Sometimes she joins a band of others ; more often 
 she stays alone with her fawn, and perhaps one of the 
 young of the previous year, until the rut begins. Of all 
 game the prongbuck seems to me the most excitable dur- 
 ing the rut. The males run the does much as do the 
 bucks of the mule and whitetail deer. If there are no 
 does present, I have sometimes watched a buck run to 
 and fro by himself. The first time I saw this I was 
 greatly interested, and could form no idea of what the 
 buck was doing. He was by a creek bed in a slight de- 
 pression or shallow valley, and was grazing uneasily. 
 After a little while he suddenly started and ran just as 
 hard as he could, off in a straight direction, nearly away 
 from me. I thought that somehow or other he had dis- 
 covered my presence ; but he suddenly wheeled and came 
 back to the original place, still running at his utmost 
 speed. Then he halted, moved about with the white 
 hairs on his rump outspread, and again dashed off at full 
 speed, halted, wheeled, and came back. Two or three 
 times he did this, and let me get very close to him be- 
 fore he discovered me. I was too much interested in 
 what he was doing to desire to shoot him. 
 
 In September, sometimes not earlier than October, 
 the big bucks begin to gather the (^oes into harems. Each 
 
144 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 buck is then constantly on the watch to protect his harem 
 from outsiders, and steal another doe if he can get a 
 chance. I have seen a comparatively young buck w^ho 
 had appropriated a doe, hustle her hastily out of the 
 country as soon as he saw^ another antelope in the neigh- 
 borhood; while, on the other hand, a big buck, already 
 with a good herd of does, will do his best to appropriate 
 any other that comes in sight. The bucks fight fearlessly 
 but harmlessly among themselves, locking their horns 
 and then pushing as hard as they can. 
 
 Although their horns are not very formidable weap- 
 ons, they are bold little creatures, and if given a chance 
 will stand at bay before either hound or coyote. A doe 
 will fight most gallantly for her fawn, and is an over- 
 match for a single coyote, but of course she can do but lit- 
 tle against a large wolf. The wolves are occasionally very 
 destructive to the herds. The cougar,, however, which 
 is a much worse foe than the wolf to deer and mountain 
 sheep, can but rarely molest the prongbuck, owing to the 
 nature of the latter's haunts. Eagles, on occasion, take 
 the fawns, as they do those of deer. 
 
 I have always been fond of the chase of the prong- 
 buck. While I lived on my ranch on the Little Mis- 
 souri it was, next to the mule-deer, the game which I 
 most often followed, and on the long wagon strips which 
 I occasionally took from my ranch to the Black Hills, 
 to the Big Horn Mountains, or into eastern Montana, 
 prongbuck venison was our usual fresh meat, save when 
 we could kill prairie-chickens and ducks with our rifles, 
 which was not always feasible. In my mind the prong- 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 145 
 
 buck is always associated with the open prairies during 
 the spring, summer, or early fall. It has happened that 
 I have generally pursued the bighorn in bitter weather; 
 and when we laid in our stock of winter meat, mule- 
 deer was our usual game. Though I have shot prongbuck 
 in winter, I never liked to do so, as I felt the animals 
 were then having a sufficiently hard struggle for existence 
 anyhow. But in the spring the meat of the prongbuck 
 was better than that of any other game, and, moreover, 
 there was not the least danger of mistaking the sexes, 
 and killing a doe accidentally, and accordingly I rarely 
 killed anything but pronghorns at that season. In those 
 days we never got any fresh meat, whether on the ranch or 
 while on the round-up or on a wagon trip, unless we shot 
 it, and salt pork became a most monotonous diet after a 
 time. 
 
 Occasionally I killed the prongbuck in a day's hunt 
 from my ranch. If I started with the intention of prong- 
 buck hunting, I always went on horseback; but twice I 
 killed them on foot when I happened to run across them 
 by accident while looking for mule-deer. I shall always 
 remember one of these occasions. I was alone in the Elk- 
 horn ranch-house at the time, my foreman and the only 
 cowpuncher who was not on the round-up having driven 
 to Medora, some forty miles away, in order to bring down 
 the foreman's wife and sister, who were going to spend 
 the summer with him. It was the fourth day of his ab- 
 sence. I expected him in the evening and wanted to have 
 fresh meat, and so after dinner I shouldered my rifle and 
 strolled off through the hills. It was too early in the 
 
146 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 day to expect to see anything, and my intention was sim- 
 ply to walk out until I was five or six miles from the 
 ranch, and then work carefully home through a likely 
 country toward sunset, as by this arrangement I would 
 be in a good game region at the very time that the ani- 
 mals were likely to stir abroad. It was a glaring, late- 
 spring day, and in the hot sun of mid-afternoon I had no 
 idea that anything would be moving, and was not keep- 
 ing a very sharp lookout. After an hour or two's steady 
 tramping I came into a long, narrow valley, bare of trees 
 and brushwood, and strolled along it, following a cattle 
 trail that led up the middle. The hills rose steeply into 
 a ridge crest on each side, sheer clay shoulders breaking 
 the mat of buffalo-grass which elsewhere covered the 
 sides of the valley as well as the bottom. It was very hot 
 and still, and I was paying but little attention to my sur- 
 roundings, when my eye caught a sudden movement on 
 the ridge crest to my right, and, dropping on one knee 
 as I wheeled around, I saw the head and neck of a prong- 
 buck rising above the crest. The animal was not above 
 a hundred yards off, and stood motionless as it stared at 
 me. At the crack of the rifle the head disappeared; but 
 as I sprang clear of the smoke I saw a cloud of dust rise 
 on the other side of the ridge crest, and felt convinced 
 that the quarry had fallen. I was right. On climbing 
 the ridge crest I found that on the other side it sank 
 abruptly in a low cliff of clay, and at the foot of this, 
 thirty feet under me, the prongbuck lay with its neck 
 broken. After dressing it I shouldered the body entire, 
 thinking that I should like to impress the new-comers by 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 147 
 
 the sight of so tangible a proof of my hunting prowess as 
 whole prongbuck hanging up in the cottonwoods by the 
 house. As it was a well-grown buck the walk home un- 
 der the hot sun was one of genuine toil. 
 
 The spot where I ran across this prongbuck was miles 
 away from the nearest plains, and it was very unusual 
 to see one in such rough country. In fact, the occurrence 
 was wholly exceptional ; just as I once saw three bighorn 
 rams, which usually keep to the roughest country, de- 
 liberately crossing the river bottom below my ranch, and 
 going for half a mile through the thick cottonwood tim- 
 ber. Occasionally, however, parties of prongbuck came 
 down the creek bottoms to the river. Once I struck a 
 couple of young bucks in the bottom of a creek which led 
 to the Chimney Butte ranch-house, and stalked them 
 without difficulty; for as prongbuck make no effort to 
 hide, if there is good cover even their sharp eyes do not 
 avail them. On another occasion several does and fawns, 
 which we did not molest, spent some time on what we 
 called " the corral bottom," which was two or three miles 
 above the ranch-house. In the middle of this bottom we 
 had built a corral for better convenience in branding the 
 calves when the round-up came near our ranch — as the 
 bottom on which the ranch-house stood was so thickly 
 wooded as to make it difficult to work cattle thereon. 
 The does and fawns hung around the corral bottom for 
 some little time, and showed themselves very curious and 
 by no means shy. 
 
 When I went from the ranch for a day's prongbuck 
 hunting of set purpose, I always rode a stout horse and 
 
148 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 started by dawn. The prongbucks are almost the only 
 game that can be hunted as well during the heat of the 
 day as at any other time. They occasionally lie down for 
 two or three hours about noon in some hollow where tHey 
 cannot be seen, but usually there is no place where they 
 are sure they can escape observation even when resting; 
 and when this is the case they choose a somewhat con- 
 spicuous station and trust to their own powers of observa- 
 tion, exactly as they do when feeding. There is there- 
 fore no necessity, as with deer, of trying to strike them at 
 dawn or dusk. The reason why I left the ranch before 
 sunrise and often came back long after dark was because 
 I had to ride at least a dozen miles to get out to the ground 
 and a dozen to get back, and if after industrious walking 
 I failed at first to find my game, I would often take the 
 horse again and ride for an hour or two to get into new 
 country. Prongbuck water once a day, often travelling 
 great distances to or from some little pool or spring. Of 
 course, if possible, I liked to leave the horse by such a 
 pool or spring. On the great plains to which I used to 
 make these excursions there was plenty of water in early 
 spring, and it would often run, here and there, in the 
 upper courses of some of the creeks — which, however, 
 usually contained running water only when there had 
 been a cloudburst or freshet. As the season wore on the 
 country became drier and drier. Water would remain 
 only in an occasional deep hole, and few springs were left 
 in which there was so much as a trickle. In a strange 
 country I could not tell where these water-holes were, but 
 in the neighborhood of the ranch I of course knew where 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 149 
 
 I was likely to find them. Often, however, I was disap- 
 pointed ; and more than once after travelling many miles 
 to where I hoped to find water, there would be nothing 
 but sun-cracked mud, and the horse and I would have 
 eighteen hours of thirst in consequence. A ranch horse, 
 however, is accustomed to such incidents, and of course 
 when a man spends half the time riding, it is merely a 
 matter of slight inconvenience to go so long without a 
 drink. 
 
 Nevertheless, if I did reach a spring, it turned the 
 expedition into pleasure instead of toil. Even in the hot 
 weather the ride toward the plains over the hills was 
 very lovely. It was beautiful to see the red dawn quicken 
 from the first glimmering gray in the east, and then to 
 watch the crimson bars glint on the tops of the fantasti- 
 cally shaped barren hills when the sun flamed, burning 
 and splendid, above the horizon. In the early morning 
 the level beams threw into sharp relief the strangely 
 carved and channelled cliff walls of the buttes. There 
 was rarely a cloud to dim the serene blue of the sky. By 
 the time the heat had grown heavy I had usually reached 
 the spring or pool, where I unsaddled the horse, watered 
 him, and picketed him out to graze. Then, under the 
 hot sun, I would stride off for the hunting proper. On 
 such occasions I never went to where the prairie was ab- 
 soKtely flat. There were always gently rolling stretches 
 bifilcen by shallow watercourses, slight divides, and even 
 low mounds, sometimes topped with strangely shaped 
 masses of red scoria or with petrified trees. My object, 
 of course, was^ either with my unaided eyes or with the 
 
I50 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 help of my glasses, to catch sight of the prongbucks be- 
 fore they saw me. I speedily found, by the way, that if 
 they were too plentiful this was almost impossible. The 
 more abundant deer are in a given locality the more apt 
 one is to run across them, and of course if the country is 
 sufficiently broken, the same is true of prongbucks; but 
 where it is very flat and there are many different bands in 
 sight at the same time, it is practically impossible to keep 
 out of sight of all of them, and as they are also all in 
 sight of one another, if one flees the others are certain 
 to take the alarm. Under such circumstances I have usu- 
 ally found that the only pronghorns I got were obtained 
 by accident, so to speak; that is, by some of them unex- 
 pectedly running my way, or by my happening to come 
 across them in some nook where I could not see thern, or 
 they me, 
 
 Prongbucks are very fast runners indeed, even faster 
 than deer. They vary greatly in speed, however, precise- 
 ly as is the case with deer ; in fact, I think that the aver- 
 age hunter makes altogether too little account of this 
 individual variation among different animals of the same 
 kind. Under the same conditions different deer and ante- 
 lope vary in speed and wariness, exactly as bears and cou- 
 gars vary in cunning and ferocity. When in perfect con- 
 dition a full-grown buck antelope, from its strength and 
 size, is faster and more enduring than an old doe ; bu| a 
 fat buck, before the rut has begun, will often be pulled 
 down by a couple of good greyhounds much more speed- 
 ily than a flying yearling or two-year-old doe. Under 
 favorable circumstances, when the antelope was jumped 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 151 
 
 near by, I have seen one overhauled and seized by a first- 
 class greyhound; and, on the other hand, I have more 
 than once seen a pronghorn run aw^ay from a whole pack 
 of just as good dogs. With a fair start, and on good 
 ground, a thoroughbred horse, even though handi- 
 capped by the w^eight of a rider, will run down an ante- 
 lope ; but this is a feat which should rarely be attempted, 
 because such a race, even when carried to a successful 
 issue, is productive of the utmost distress to the steed. 
 
 Ordinary horses will sometimes run down an antelope 
 which is slower than the average. I once had on my 
 ranch an under-sized old Indian pony named White 
 Eye, which, when it was fairly roused, showed a remark- 
 able turn of speed, and had great endurance. One morn- 
 ing on the round-up, when for some reason we did not 
 work the cattle, I actually ran down an antelope in fair 
 chase on this old pony. It was a nursing doe, and I came 
 over the crest of the hill, between forty and fifty yards 
 away from it. As it wheeled to start back, the old cayuse 
 pricked up his ears with great interest, and the moment 
 I gave him a sign was after it like a shot. Whether, being 
 a cow-pony, he started to run it just as if it were a calf 
 or a yearling trying to break out of the herd, or whether 
 he was overcome by dim reminiscences of buffalo-hunt- 
 ing in his Indian youth, I know not. At any rate, after 
 the doe he went, and in a minute or two I found I was 
 drawing up to her. I had a revolver, but of course did 
 not wish to kill her, and so got my rope ready to try to 
 take her alive. She ran frantically, but the old pony, 
 bending level to the ground, kept up his racing lope and 
 
152 AN AMERICAN, HUNTER 
 
 closed right in beside her. As I came up she fairly 
 bleated. An expert with the rope would have captured 
 her with the utmost ease ; but I missed, sending the coil 
 across her shoulders. She again gave an agonized bleat, 
 or bark, and wheeled around like a shot. The cow-pony 
 stopped almost, but not quite, as fast, and she got a slight 
 start, and it was some little time before I overhauled her 
 again. When I did I repeated the performance, and this 
 time when she wheeled she succeeded in getting on some 
 ground where I could not follow, and I was thrown out. 
 
 Normally, a horseman without greyhounds can hope 
 for nothing more than to get within fair shooting range ; 
 and this only by taking advantage of the prongbucks' 
 peculiarity of running straight ahead in the direction in 
 which they are pointed, when once they have settled into 
 their pace. Usually, as soon as they see a hunter they run 
 straight away from him; but sometimes they make their 
 flight at an angle, and as they do not like to change their 
 course when once started, it is thus possible, with a good 
 horse, to cut them off from the point toward which they 
 are headed, and get a reasonably close shot. 
 
 I have done a good deal of coursing with greyhounds 
 at one time or another, but always with scratch packs. 
 There are a few ranchmen who keep leashes of grey- 
 hounds of pure blood, bred and trained to antelope cours- 
 ing, and who do their coursing scientifically, carrying the 
 dogs out to the hunting-grounds in wagons and exercis- 
 ing every care in the sport; but these men are rare. The 
 average man who dwells where antelope are sufficiently 
 abundant to make coursing a success, simply follows the 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 
 
 153 
 
 pursuit at odd moments, with whatever long-legged dogs 
 he and his neighbors happen to have ; and his methods of 
 coursing are apt to be as rough as his outfit. My own 
 coursing was precisely of this character. At different 
 times I had on my ranch one or two high-classed grey- 
 hounds and Scotch deerhounds, with which we coursed 
 deer and antelope, as well as jack-rabbits, foxes, and 
 coyotes; and we usually had with them one or two or- 
 dinary hounds, and various half-bred dogs. I must add, 
 however, that some of the latter were very good. I can 
 recall in particular one fawn-colored beast, a cross be- 
 tween a greyhound and a foxhound, which ran nearly 
 as fast as the former, though it occasionally yelped in 
 shrill tones. It could also trail well, and was thoroughly 
 game; on one occasion it ran down and killed a coyote 
 single-handed. 
 
 On going out with these dogs, I rarely chose a day 
 when I was actually in need of fresh meat. If this was 
 the case, I usually went alone with the rifle ; but if one 
 or two other men were at the ranch, and we wanted a 
 morning's fun, we would often summon the dogs, mount 
 our horses, and go trooping out to the antelope-ground. 
 As there was good deer-country between the ranch bot- 
 tom and the plains where we found the prongbuck, it not 
 infrequently happened that we had a chase after black- 
 tail or whitetail on the way. Moreover, when we got out 
 to the ground, before sighting antelope, it frequently hap- 
 pened that the dogs would jump a jack- rabbit or a fox, 
 and away the whole set would go after it, streaking 
 through the short grass, sometimes catching their prey 
 
154 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 in a few hundred yards, and sometimes having to run a 
 mile or so. In consequence, by the time we reached the 
 regular hunting-ground the dogs were apt to have lost 
 a good deal of their freshness. We would get them in 
 behind the horses and creep cautiously along, trying to 
 find some solitary prongbuck in a suitable place, where 
 we could bring up the dogs from behind a hillock and 
 give them a fair start. Usually we failed to get the dogs 
 near enough for a good start; and in most cases their 
 chases after unwounded prongbuck resulted in the quarry 
 running clean away from them. Thus the odds were 
 greatly against them ; but, on the other hand, we helped 
 them wherever possible with the rifle. We usually rode 
 well scattered out, and if one of us put up an antelope, 
 or had a chance at one when driven by the dogs, he 
 always fired, and the pack were saved from the ill effects 
 of total discouragement by so often getting these wounded 
 beasts. It was astonishing to see how fast an antelope 
 with a broken leg could run. If such a beast had a good 
 start, and especially if the dogs were tired, it would often 
 lead them a hard chase, and the dogs would be utterly 
 exhausted after it had been killed ; so that we would have 
 to let them lie where they were for a long time before 
 trying to lead them down to some stream-bed. If pos- 
 sible, we carried water for them in canteens. 
 
 There were red-letter days, however, on which our 
 dogs fairly ran down and killed unwounded antelope — 
 days when the weather was cool, and when it happened 
 that we got our dogs out to the ground without their being 
 tired by previous runs, and found our quarry soon, and 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 155 
 
 in favorable places for slipping the hounds. I remember 
 one such chase in particular. We had at the time a mixed 
 pack, in which there was only one dog of my own, the 
 others being contributed from various sources. It in- 
 cluded two greyhounds, a rough-coated deerhound, a fox- 
 hound, and the fawn-colored cross-bred mentioned above. 
 We rode out in the early morning, the dogs trotting 
 behind us; and, coming to a low tract of rolling hills, 
 just at the edge of the great prairie, we separated and 
 rode over the crest of the nearest ridge. Just as we topped 
 it, a fine buck leaped up from a hollow a hundred yards 
 off, and turned to look at us for a moment. All the dogs 
 were instantly spinning toward him down the grassy 
 slope. He apparently saw those at the right, and, turn- 
 ing, raced away from us in a diagonal line, so that the 
 left-hand greyhound, which ran cunning and tried to 
 cut him off, was very soon almost alongside. He saw her, 
 however — she was a very fast bitch — ^just in time, and, 
 wheeling, altered his course to the right. As he reached 
 the edge of the prairie, this alteration nearly brought him 
 in contact with the cross-bred, which had obtained a rather 
 poor start, on the extreme right of the line. Around went 
 the buck again, evidently panic-struck and puzzled to 
 the last degree, and started straight off across the prairie, 
 the dogs literally at his heels, and we, urging our horses 
 with whip and spur, but a couple of hundred yards be- 
 hind. For half a mile the pace was tremendous, when 
 one of the greyhounds made a spring at his ear, but fail- 
 ing to make good his hold, was thrown off. However, 
 it halted the buck for a moment, and made him turn 
 
156 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 quarter round, and in a second the deerhound had seized 
 
 him by the flank and thrown him, and all the dogs piled 
 
 on top, never allowing him to rise. 
 
 Later we again put up a buck not far off. At first 
 
 « 
 
 it went slowly, and the dogs hauled up on it; but when 
 they got pretty close, it seemed to see them, and letting 
 itself out, went clean away from them almost without 
 effort. 
 
 Once or twice we came upon bands of antelope, and 
 the hounds would immediately take after them. I was 
 always rather sorry for this, however, because the fright- 
 ened animals, as is generally the case when beasts are 
 in a herd, seemed to impede one another, and the chase 
 usually ended by the dogs seizing a doe, for it was of 
 course impossible to direct them to any particular beast. 
 
 It will be seen that with us coursing was a homely 
 sport. Nevertheless we had good fun, and I shall always 
 have enjoyable memories of the rapid gallops across the 
 prairie, on the trail of a flying prongbuck. 
 
 Usually my pronghorn hunting has been done while 
 I have been off with a wagon on a trip intended prima- 
 rily for the chase, or else while travelling for some other 
 purpose. 
 
 All life in the wilderness is so pleasant that the 
 temptation is to consider each particular variety, while 
 one is enjoying it, as better than any other, A canoe trip 
 through the great forests, a trip with a pack-train among 
 the mountains, a trip on snow-shoes through the silent, 
 mysterious fairyland of the woods in winter — each has 
 its peculiar charm. To some men the sunny monotony 
 

HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 157 
 
 of the great plains is wearisome ; personally there are few 
 things I have enjoyed more than journeying over them 
 where the game was at all plentiful. Sometimes I have 
 gone ofif for three or four days alone on horseback, with 
 a slicker or oilskin coat behind the saddle, and some salt 
 and hardtack as my sole provisions. But for comfort on 
 a trip of any length it was always desirable to have a 
 wagon. My regular outfit consisted of a wagon and team 
 driven by one man who cooked, together with another 
 man and four riding ponies, two of which we rode, while 
 the other two were driven loose or led behind the wagon. 
 While it is eminently desirable that a hunter should be 
 able to rough it, and should be entirely willing to put 
 up with the bare minimum of necessities, and to undergo 
 great fatigue and hardship, it is yet not at all necessary 
 that he should refrain from comfort of a wholesome sort 
 when it is obtainable. By taking the wagon we could 
 carry a tent to put up if there was foul weather. I had 
 a change of clothes to put on if I was wet, two or three 
 books to read — and nothing adds more to the enjoyment 
 of a hunting trip — as well as plenty of food ; while having 
 two men made me entirely foot-loose as regards camp, 
 so that I could hunt whenever I pleased, and, if I came 
 in tired, I simply rested, instead of spending two or three 
 hours in pitching camp, cooking, tethering horses, and 
 doing the innumerable other little things which in the 
 aggregate amount to so much. 
 
 On such a trip, when we got into unknown country, 
 it was of course very necessary to stay near the wagon, 
 especially if we had to hunt for water. But if we knew 
 
158 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the country at all, we would decide in the morning about 
 where the camp was to be made in the afternoon, and 
 then I would lope ofif on my own account, while the 
 wagon lumbered slowly across the rough prairie sward 
 straight toward its destination. Sometimes I took the 
 spare man with me, and sometimes not. It was conven- 
 ient to have him, for there are continually small emer- 
 gencies in which it is well to be with a companion. For 
 instance, if one jumps off for a sudden shot, there is al- 
 ways a slight possibility that any but a thoroughly trained 
 horse will get frightened and gallop away. On some of 
 my horses I could absolutely depend, but there were 
 others, and very good ones too, which would on rare occa- 
 sions fail me; and few things are more disheartening 
 than a long stern chase after one's steed under such cir- 
 cumstances, with the unpleasant possibility of seeing him 
 leave the country entirely and strike out for the ranch 
 fifty or sixty miles distant. If there is a companion with 
 one, all danger of this is over. Moreover, in galloping 
 at full speed after the game it is impossible now and then 
 to avoid a tumble, as the horse may put his leg into a 
 prairie-dog hole or badger burrow; and on such occasions 
 a companion may come in very handily. On the other 
 hand, there is so great a charm in absolute solitude, in the 
 wild, lonely freedom of the great plains, that often I 
 would make some excuse and go off entirely by myself. 
 
 Such rides had a fascination of their own. Hour after 
 hour the wiry pony shuffled onward across the sea of 
 short, matted grass. On every side the plains stretched 
 seemingly limitless. Sometimes there would be no obr 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 159 
 
 ject to break the horizon; sometimes across a score of 
 miles there would loom through the clear air the fantastic 
 outlines of a chain of buttes, rising grim and barren. Oc- 
 casionally there might be a slightly marked watercourse, 
 every drop of moisture long dried; and usually there 
 would not be as much as the smallest sage brush anywhere 
 in sight. As the sun rose higher and higher the shadows 
 of horse and rider shortened, and the beams were reflected 
 from the short, bleached blades until in the hot air all 
 the landscape afar off seemed to dance and waver. Often 
 on such trips days went by without our coming across 
 another human being, and the loneliness and vastness of 
 the country seemed as unbroken as if the old vanished 
 days had returned — the days of the wild wilderness wan- 
 derers, and the teeming myriads of game they followed, 
 and the scarcely wilder savages against whom they 
 warred. 
 
 Now and then prongbuck would appear, singly or 
 in bands; and their sharp bark of alarm or curiosity 
 would come to me through the still, hot air over great 
 distances, as they stood with head erect looking at me, 
 the white patches on their rumps shining in the sun, and 
 the bands and markings on their heads and necks show- 
 ing as if they were in livery. Scan the country as care- 
 fully as I would, they were far more apt to see me than 
 I was them, and once they had seen me, it was normally 
 hopeless to expect to get them. But their strange freak- 
 ishness of nature frequently offsets the keenness of their 
 senses. At least half of the prongbucks which I shot were 
 obtained, not by stalking, but by coming across them 
 
i6o AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 purely through their own fault. Though the prairie 
 seemed level, there was really a constant series of un- 
 dulations, shallow and of varying width. Now and then 
 as I topped some slight rise I would catch a glimpse of 
 a little band of pronghorns feeding, and would slip off 
 my horse before they could see me. A hasty determina- 
 tion as to where the best chance of approaching them lay 
 would be followed by a half-hour's laborious crawl, a 
 good part of the time flat on my face. They might dis- 
 cover me when I was still too far for a shot; or by taking 
 advantage of every little inequality I might get within 
 long range before they got a glimpse of me, and then in 
 a reasonable proportion of cases I would bag my buck. 
 At other times the buck would come to me. Perhaps one 
 would suddenly appear over a divide himself, and his 
 curiosity would cause him to stand motionless long 
 enough to give me a shot; while on other occasions I 
 have known one which was out of range to linger around, 
 shifting his position as I shifted mine, until by some sud- 
 den gallop or twist I was able to get close enough to 
 empty my magazine at him. 
 
 When the shadows had lengthened, but before any 
 coolness had come into the air, I would head for the ap- 
 pointed camping-place. Sometimes this would be on 
 the brink of some desolate little pool under a low, tree- 
 less butte, or out on the open prairie where the only Wood 
 was what we had brought with us. At other times I 
 would find the wagon drawn up on the edge of some 
 shrunken plains river, under a line of great cottonwoods 
 with splintered branches and glossy leaves that rustled 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY i6i 
 
 all day long. Such a camp was always comfortable, for 
 there was an abundance of wood for the fire, plenty of 
 water, and thick feed in which the horses grazed — one 
 or two being picketed and the others feeding loose until 
 night came on. If I had killed a prongbuck, steaks were 
 speedily sizzling in the frying-pan over the hot coals. 
 If I had failed to get anything, I would often walk a 
 mile or two down or up the river to see if I could not 
 kill a couple of prairie-chickens or ducks. If the even- 
 ing was at all cool, we built a fire as darkness fell, and 
 sat around it, while the leaping flames lit up the trunks 
 of the cottonwoods and gleamed on the pools of water 
 in the half-dry river bed. Then I would wrap myself 
 in my blanket and lie looking up at the brilliant stars 
 until I fell asleep. 
 
 In both 1893 and 1894 I made trips to a vast tract of 
 rolling prairie land, some fifty miles from my ranch, 
 where I had for many years enjoyed the keen pleasure 
 of hunting the prongbuck. In 1893 the pronghorned 
 bands were as plentiful in this district as I have ever seen 
 them anywhere. Lambert was with me ; and in a week's 
 trip, including the journey out and back, we easily shot 
 all the antelope we felt we had any right to kill ; for we 
 only shot to get meat, or an unusually fine head. Lambert 
 did most of the shooting; and I have never seen a profes- 
 sional hunter do better in stalking antelope on the open 
 prairie. I myself fired at only two antelope, both of 
 which had already been missed. In each case a hard run 
 and much firing at long ranges, together with in one case 
 some skilful manoeuvring, got me my game ; yet one buck 
 
1 62 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 cost ten cartridges and the other eight. In 1894 I had ex- 
 actly the reverse experience. I killed five antelope for 
 thirty-six shots, but each one that I killed was killed with 
 the first bullet, and in not one case where I missed the 
 first time did I hit with any subsequent shot. These five 
 antelope were killed at an average distance of about 150 
 yards. Those that I missed were, of course, much farther 
 off on an average, and I usually emptied my magazine at 
 each. The number of cartridges spent would seem ex- 
 traordinary to a tyro; and an unusually skilful shot, or 
 else a very timid shot who fears to take risks, will of course 
 make a better showing per head killed; but I doubt if 
 men with experience in antelope hunting, who keep an 
 accurate account of the cartridges they expend, will see 
 anything much out of the way in the performance. 
 
 During the years I have hunted in the West I have 
 always, where possible, kept a record of the number of 
 cartridges expended for every head of game killed, and 
 of the distances at which it was shot. I have found that 
 with bison, bear, moose, elk, caribou, bighorn and white 
 goat, where the animals shot at were mostly of large size 
 and usually stationary, and where the mountainous or 
 wooded country gave chance for a close approach, the 
 average distance at which I have killed the game has been 
 eighty yards, and the average number of cartridges ex- 
 pended per head slain, three ; one of these representing the 
 death-shot, and the others standing either for misses out- 
 right, of which there were not many, or else for wounding 
 game which escaped, or which I afterward overtook, or 
 for stopping cripples or charging beasts. I have killed 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 163 
 
 but two peccaries, using but one cartridge for each ; they 
 were close up. My experiences with cougar have already 
 been narrated. At wolves and coyotes I have generally 
 had to take running shots at very long range, and I have 
 shot but two — one of each — for fifty cartridges. Blacktail 
 deer I have generally shot at about ninety yards, at an ex- 
 penditure of about four cartridges apiece. Whitetail I 
 have killed at shorter range ; but the shots were generally 
 running, often taken under difficult circumstances, so that 
 my expenditure of cartridges was rather larger. Ante- 
 lope, on the other hand, I have on the average shot at a lit- 
 tle short of 150 yards, and they have cost me about nine 
 cartridges apiece. This, of course, as I have explained 
 above, does not mean that I have missed eight out of nine 
 antelope, for often the entire nine cartridges would be 
 spent at an antelope which I eventually got. It merely 
 means that, counting all the shots of every description 
 fired at antelope, I had one head to show for each nine 
 cartridges expended. 
 
 Thus, the first antelope I shot in 1893 cost me ten 
 cartridges, of which three hit him, while the seven that 
 missed were fired at over 400 yards' distance while he was 
 running. We saw him while we were with the wagon. 
 As we had many miles to go before sunset, we cared 
 nothing about frightening other game, and, as we had 
 no fresh meat, it was worth while to take some chances 
 to procure it. When I first fired, the prongbuck had al- 
 ready been shot at and was in full flight. He was beyond 
 all reasonable range, but some of our bullets went over 
 him and he began to turn. By running to one side I got 
 
1 64 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 a shot at him at a little over 400 paces, as he slowed to 
 a walk, bewildered by the firing, and the bullet broke his 
 hip. I missed him two or three times as he plunged off, 
 and then by hard running down a watercourse got a shot 
 at 180 paces and broke his shoulder, and broke his neck 
 with another bullet when I came up. 
 
 This one was shot while going out to the hunting- 
 ground. While there Lambert killed four others. I did 
 not fire again until on our return, when I killed another 
 buck one day while we were riding with the wagon. 
 The day was gray and overcast. There were slight flur- 
 ries of snow, and the cold wind chilled us as it blew across 
 the endless reaches of sad-colored prairie. Behind us 
 loomed Sentinel Butte, and all around the rolling surface 
 was broken by chains of hills, by patches of bad lands, 
 or by isolated, saddle-shaped mounds. The ranch wagon 
 jolted over the uneven sward, and plunged in and out of 
 the dry beds of the occasional water courses ; for we were 
 following no road, but merely striking northward across 
 the prairie toward the P. K. ranch. We went at a good 
 pace, for the afternoon was bleak, the wagon was lightly 
 loaded, and the Sherifif of the county, whose deputy I had 
 been, and who was serving for the nonce as our teamster 
 and cook, kept the two gaunt, wild-looking horses trot- 
 ting steadily. Lambert and I rode to one side on our 
 unkempt cow-ponies, our rifles slung across the saddle 
 bows. 
 
 Our stock of fresh meat was getting low and we were 
 anxious to shoot something; but in the early hours of the 
 afternoon we saw no game. Small parties of horned larks 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 165 
 
 ran along the ground ahead of the wagon, twittering 
 plaintively as they rose, and now and then flocks of long- 
 spurs flew hither and thither; but of larger life we saw 
 nothing, save occasional bands of range horses. The 
 drought had been severe and we were far from the river, 
 so that we saw no horned stock. Horses can travel much 
 farther to water than cattle, and, when the springs dry 
 up, they stay much farther out on the prairie. 
 
 At last we did see a band of four antelope, lying in 
 the middle of a wide plain, but they saw us before we 
 saw them, and the ground was so barren of cover that it 
 was impossible to get near them. Moreover, they were 
 very shy and ran almost as soon as we got our eyes on 
 them. For an hour or two after this we jogged along 
 without seeing anything, while the gray clouds piled up 
 in the west and the afternoon began to darken ; then, just 
 after passing Saddle Butte, we struck a rough prairie 
 road, which we knew led to the P. K. ranch — a road very 
 faint in places, while in others the wheels had sunk deep 
 in the ground and made long, parallel ruts. 
 
 Almost immediately after striking this road, on top- 
 ping a small rise, we discovered a young prongbuck 
 standing off a couple of hundred yards to one side, gazing 
 at the wagon with that absorbed curiosity which in this 
 game so often conquers its extreme wariness and timidity, 
 to a certain extent offsetting the advantage conferred 
 upon it by its marvellous vision. The little antelope stood 
 broadside on, gazing at us out of its great bulging eyes, 
 the sharply contrasted browns and whites of its coat 
 showing plainly. Lambert and I leaped off our horses 
 
1 66 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 immediately, and I knelt and pulled trigger; but the car- 
 tridge snapped, and the little buck, wheeling round, can- 
 tered ofif, the white hairs on its rump standing erect. 
 There was a strong cross-wind, almost a gale, blowing, 
 and Lambert's bullet went just behind him ; off he went 
 at a canter, which changed to a breakneck gallop, as we 
 again fired ; and he went out of sight unharmed, over the 
 crest of the rising ground in front. We ran after him as 
 hard as we could pelt up the hill, into a slight valley, 
 and then up another rise, and again got a glimpse of him 
 standing, but this time farther off than before ; and again 
 our shots went wild. 
 
 However, the antelope changed its racing gallop to 
 a canter while still in sight, going slower and slower, and, 
 what was rather curious, it did not seem much frightened. 
 We were naturally a good deal chagrined at our shooting 
 and wished to retrieve ourselves, if possible; so we ran 
 back to the wagon, got our horses and rode after the buck. 
 He had continued his flight in a straight line, gradually 
 slackening his pace, and a mile's brisk gallop enabled us 
 to catch a glimpse of him, far ahead and merely walking. 
 The wind was bad, and we decided to sweep off and try 
 to circle round ahead of him. Accordingly, we dropped 
 back, turned into a slight hollow to the right, and gal- 
 loped hard until we came to the foot of a series of low 
 buttes, when we turned more to the left; and, when we 
 judged that we were about across the antelope's line of 
 march, leaped from our horses, threw the reins over their 
 heads, and left them standing, while we stole up the near- 
 est rise ; and, when close to the top, took off our caps and 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 167 
 
 pushed ourselves forward, flat on our faces to peep over. 
 We had judged the distance well, for we saw the antelope 
 at once, now stopping to graze. Drawing back, we ran 
 along some little distance nearer, then drew up over the 
 same rise. He was only about 125 yards off, and this 
 time there was no excuse for my failing to get him ; but 
 fail I did, and away the buck raced again, with both of 
 us shooting. My first two shots were misses, but I kept 
 correcting my aim and holding farther in front of the 
 flying beast. My last shot was taken just as the antelope 
 reached the edge of the broken country, in which he 
 would have been safe ; and almost as I pulled the trigger 
 I had the satisfaction of seeing him pitch forward and, 
 after turning a complete somerset, lie motionless. I 
 had broken his neck. He had cost us a good many car- 
 tridges, and, though my last shot was well aimed, there 
 was doubtless considerable chance in my hitting him, 
 while there was no excuse at all for at least one of my 
 previous misses. Nevertheless, all old hunters know that 
 there is no other kind of shooting in which so many car- 
 tridges are expended for every head of game bagged. 
 
 As we knelt down to butcher the antelope, the clouds 
 broke and the rain fell. Hastily we took off the saddle 
 and hams, and, packing them behind us on our horses, 
 loped to the wagon in the teeth of the cold storm. When 
 we overtook it, after some sharp riding, we threw in the 
 meat, and not very much later, when the day was grow- 
 ing dusky, caught sight of the group of low ranch build- 
 ings toward which we had been headed. We were re- 
 ceived with warm hospitality, as one always is in a ranch 
 
1 68 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 country. We dried our streaming clothes inside the 
 warm ranch house and had a good supper, and that night 
 we rolled up in our blankets and tarpaulins, and slept 
 soundly in the lee of a big haystack. The ranch house 
 stood in the winding bottom of a creek; the flanking hills 
 were covered with stunted cedar, while dwarf cotton- 
 wood and box elder grew by the pools in the half-dried 
 creek bed. 
 
 Next morning we had risen by dawn. The storm was 
 over, and it was clear and cold. Before sunrise we had 
 started. We were only some thirty miles away from my 
 ranch, and I directed the Sheriff how to go there, by strik- 
 ing east until he came to the main divide, and then fol- 
 lowing that down till he got past a certain big plateau, 
 when a turn to the right down any of the coulees would 
 bring him into the river bottom near the ranch house. 
 We wished ourselves to ride off to one side and try to 
 pick up another antelope. However, the Sheriff took the 
 wrong turn after getting to the divide, and struck the 
 river bottom some fifteen miles out of his way, so that 
 we reached the ranch a good many hours before he did. 
 
 When we left the wagon we galloped straight across 
 country, looking out from the divide across the great roll- 
 ing landscape, every feature standing clear through the 
 frosty air. Hour after hour we paced and loped on and 
 on over the grassy seas in the glorious morning. Once we 
 stopped, and I held the horses while Lambert stalked and 
 shot a fine prongbuck; then we tied his head and hams 
 to our saddles and again pressed forward along the divide. 
 We had hoped to get lunch at a spring that I knew of 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 169 
 
 some twelve miles from my ranch, but when we reacheci 
 it we found it dry and went on without halting. Early 
 in the afternoon we came out on the broad, tree-clad bot- 
 tom on which the ranch house stands, and, threading our 
 way along the cattle trails soon drew up in front of the 
 gray empty buildings. 
 
 Just as we were leaving the hunting-grounds on this 
 trip, after having killed all the game we felt we had a 
 right to kill, we encountered bands of Sioux Indians from 
 the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River reservations com- 
 ing in to hunt, and I at once felt that the chances for much 
 future sport in that particular district were small. Ind- 
 ians are not good shots, but they hunt in large numbers, 
 killing everything, does, fawns and bucks alike, and they 
 follow the wounded animals with the utmost persever- 
 ance, so that they cause much destruction of game. 
 
 Accordingly, in 1894, when I started for these same 
 grounds, it was with some misgivings ; but I had time only 
 to make a few days' hunt, and I knew of no other accessi- 
 ble grounds where prongbuck were plentiful. My fore- 
 man was with me, and, as usual, we took the ranch wagon, 
 driven this time by a cowboy who had just come up 
 over the trail with cattle from Colorado. On reaching 
 our happy hunting-grounds of the previous season, I 
 found my fears sadly verified; and one unforeseen cir- 
 cumstance, also told against me. Not only had the Ind- 
 ians made a great killing of antelope the season before, 
 but in the spring one or two sheep men had moved into 
 the country. We found that the big flocks had been mov- 
 
I/O AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 ing from one spring pool to another, eating the pasturage 
 bare, while the shepherds whom we met — ^wild-looking 
 men on rough horses, each accompanied by a pair of fur- 
 tive sheep dogs — had taken every opportunity to get a 
 shot at antelope, so as to provide themselves with fresh 
 meat. Two days of fruitless hunting in this sheep- ridden 
 region was sufficient to show that the antelope were too 
 scarce and shy to give us hope for sport, and we shifted 
 quarters, a long day's journey, to the head of another 
 creek; and we had to go to yet another before we found 
 much game. As so often happens on such a trip, when 
 we started to have bad luck we had plenty. One night 
 two of the three saddle horses stampeded and went 
 straight as the crow flies back to the home range, so that 
 we did not get them until on our return from the trip. 
 On another occasion the team succeeded in breaking the 
 wagon pole; and as there was an entire absence of wood 
 where we were at the time, we had to make a splice for 
 it with the two tent poles and the picket ropes. Never- 
 theless, it was very enjoyable out on the great grassy 
 plains. Although we had a tent with us, I always slept 
 in the open in my buffalo bag, with the tarpaulin to pull 
 over me if it rained. On each night before going to sleep, 
 I lay for many minutes gazing at the stars above, or 
 watching the rising of the red moon, which was just at 
 or past the full. 
 
 We had plenty of fresh meat — prairie fowl and young 
 sage fowl at first, and antelope venison afterward. We 
 camped by little pools, generally getting fair water; and 
 from the camps where there was plenty of wood we took 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 
 
 171 
 
 enough to build the fires at those where there was none. 
 The nights were frosty, and the days cool and pleasant, 
 and from sunrise to sunset we were off riding or walking 
 among the low hills and over the uplands, so that we slept 
 well and ate well, and felt the beat of hardy life in our 
 veins. 
 
 Much of the time we were on a high divide between 
 two creek systems, from which we could see the great 
 landmarks of all the regions roundabout, Sentinel Butte, 
 Square Butte and Middle Butte, far to the north and 
 east of us. Nothing could be more lonely and nothing 
 more beautiful than the view at nightfall across the 
 prairies to these huge hill masses, when the lengthening 
 shadows had at last merged into one and the faint after- 
 glow of the red sunset filled the west. The endless waves 
 of rolling prairie, sweeping, vast and dim, to the feet of 
 the great hills, grew purple as the evening darkened, and 
 the buttes loomed into vague,* mysterious beauty as their 
 sharp outlines softened in the twilight. 
 
 Even when we got out of reach of the sheep men we 
 never found antelope very plentiful, and they were shy, 
 and the country was flat, so that the stalking was ex- 
 tremely difficult; yet I had pretty good sport. The first 
 animal I killed was a doe, shot for meat, because I had 
 twice failed to get bucks at which I emptied my maga- 
 zine at long range, and we were all feeling hungry for 
 venison. After that I killed nothing but bucks. Of the 
 five antelope killed, one I got by a headlong gallop to 
 cut off his line of flight. As sometimes happens with this 
 queer, erratic animal, when the buck saw that I was 
 
172 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 trying to cut off his flight he simply raced ahead just 
 as hard as he knew how, and, as my pony was not fast, 
 he got to the little pass for which he was headed 200 yards 
 ahead of me. I then jumped off, and his curiosity made 
 him commit the fatal mistake of halting for a moment to 
 look round at me. He was standing end on, and offered 
 a very small mark at 200 yards ; but I made a good line 
 shot, and, though I held a trifle too high, I hit him in 
 the head, and down he came. Another buck I shot from 
 under the wagon early one morning as he was passing 
 just beyond the picketed horses. I have several times 
 shot antelope which unexpectedly came into camp in this 
 fashion. The other three I got after much manoeuvring 
 and long, tedious stalks. 
 
 In some of the stalks, after infinite labor, and perhaps 
 after crawling on all-fours for an hour, or pulling my- 
 self flat on my face among some small sage-brush for ten 
 or fifteen minutes, the game took alarm and went off. 
 Too often, also, when I finally did get a shot, it was under 
 such circumstances that I missed. Sometimes the game 
 was too far; sometimes it had taken alarm and was 
 already in motion; sometimes the trouble could only be 
 ascribed to lack of straight powder, and I was covered 
 with shame as with a garment. Once in the afternoon 
 I had to spend so much time waiting for the antelope to 
 get into a favorable place that, when I got up close, I 
 found the light already so bad that my front sight glim- 
 mered indistinctly, and the bullet went wild. Another 
 time I met with one of those misadventures which are 
 especially irritating. It was at midday, and I made out 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 173 
 
 at a long distance a band of antelope lying for their noon 
 rest in a slight hollow. A careful stalk brought me up 
 within fifty yards of them. I was crawling fiat on my 
 face, for the crest of the hillock sloped so gently that 
 this was the only way to get near them. At last, peering 
 through the grass, I saw the head of a doe. In a mo- 
 ment she saw me and jumped to her feet, and up stood 
 the whole band, including the buck. I immediately tried 
 to draw a bead on the latter, and to my horror found that, 
 lying flat as I was, and leaning on my elbows, I could not 
 bring the rifle above the tall shaking grass, and was ut- 
 terly unable to get a sight. In another second away tore 
 all the antelope. I jumped to my feet, took a snap shot 
 at the buck as he raced round a low-cut bank and missed, 
 and then walked drearily home, chewing the cud of my 
 ill-luck. Yet again in more than one instance, after mak- 
 ing a good stalk upon a band seen at some distance, I 
 found it contained only does and fawns, and would not 
 shoot at them. 
 
 Three times, however, the stalk was successful. 
 Twice I was out alone; the other time my foreman was 
 with me, and held my horse while I mancEuvred hither 
 and thither, and finally succeeded in getting into range. 
 In both the first instances I got a standing shot, but on 
 this last occasion, when my foreman was with me, two of 
 the watchful does which were in the band saw me before 
 I could get a shot at the old buck. I was creeping up 
 a low washout, and, by ducking hastily down again and 
 running back and up a side coulee, I managed to get 
 within long range of the band as they cantered off, not 
 
174 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 yet thoroughly alarmed. The buck was behind, and I 
 held just ahead of him. He plunged to the shot, but 
 went ofif over the hill-crest. When I had panted up to 
 the ridge I found him dead just beyond. 
 
 One of the antelope I killed while I was out on foot 
 toward nightfall, a couple of miles from the wagon. I 
 saw the prongbuck quite half a mile off, and though I 
 dropped at once I was uncertain whether he had seen 
 me. He was in a little hollow or valley. A long, smooth- 
 ly sloping plateau led up to one edge of it. Across this 
 plateau I crawled, and when I thought I was near the 
 run I ventured slowly to look up, and almost immediately 
 saw vaguely through the tops of the long grasses what I 
 took to be the head and horns of the buck, looking in 
 my direction. There was no use in going back, and I 
 dropped flat on my face again and crawled another hun- 
 dred yards, until it was evident that I was on the rise 
 from which the plateau sank into the shallow valley be- 
 yond. Raising my head inch by inch, I caught sight of 
 the object toward which I had been crawling, and after 
 a moment's hesitation recognized it as a dead sunflower, 
 the stalks and blossoms so arranged as to be in a V shape. 
 Completely puzzled, I started to sit up, when by sheer 
 good luck I caught sight of the real prongbuck, still feed- 
 ing, some three hundred yards off, and evidently unaware 
 of my presence. It was feeding toward a slight hill to 
 my left. I crept off until behind this, and then walked 
 up until I was in line with a big bunch of weeds on its 
 shoulder. Crawling on all-fours to the weeds, I peeped 
 through and saw the prongbuck still slowly feeding my 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 175 
 
 way. When he was but seventy yards ofif, I sat up and 
 shot him; and trudged back to the wagon, carrying the 
 saddle and hams. 
 
 In packing an antelope or deer behind the saddle, I 
 cut slashes through the sinews of the legs just above the 
 joints; then I put the buck behind the saddle, run the 
 picket rope from the horn of the saddle, under the belly 
 of the horse, through the slashes in the legs on the other 
 side, bring the end back, swaying well down on it, and 
 fasten it to the horn; then I repeat the same feat for the 
 other side. Packed in this way, the carcass always rides 
 steady, and cannot shake loose, no matter what antics the 
 horse may perform. 
 
 In the fall of 1896 I spent a fortnight on the range 
 with the ranch wagon. I was using for the first time one 
 of the new small-calibre, smokeless-powder rifles, with 
 the usual soft-nosed bullet. While travelling to and fro 
 across the range we usually moved camp each day, not 
 putting up the tent at all during the trip; but at one 
 spot we spent three nights. It was in a creek bottom, 
 bounded on either side by rows of grassy hills, beyond 
 which stretched the rolling prairie. The creek bed, 
 which at this season was of course dry in most places, 
 wound in S-shaped curves, with here and there a pool 
 and here and there a fringe of stunted wind-beaten tim- 
 ber. We were camped near a little grove of ash, box- 
 elder, and willow, which gave us shade at noonday ; and 
 there were two or three pools of good water in the creek 
 bed — one so deep that I made it my swimming-bath. 
 
176 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 The first day that I was able to make a hunt I rode 
 out with my foreman, Sylvane Ferris. I was mounted 
 on Muley. Twelve years before, when Muley was my 
 favorite cutting pony on the round-up, he never seemed 
 to tire or lose his dash, but Muley was now sixteen years 
 old, and on ordinary occasions he liked to go as soberly 
 as possible ; yet the good old pony still had the fire latent 
 in his blood, and at the sight of game — or, indeed, of 
 cattle or horses — he seemed to regain for the time being 
 all the headlong courage of his vigorous and supple 
 youth. 
 
 On the morning in question it was two or three hours 
 before Sylvane and I saw any game. Our two ponies 
 went steadily forward at a single-foot or shack, as the 
 cow-punchers term what Easterners call a " fox trot." 
 Most of the time we were passing over immense grassy 
 flats, where the mat of short curled blades lay brown 
 and parched under the bright sunlight. Occasionally we 
 came to ranges of low barren hills, which sent off gently 
 rounded spurs into the plain. 
 
 It was on one of these ranges that we first saw our 
 game. As we were travelling along the divide we spied 
 eight antelope far ahead of us. They saw us as soon 
 as we saw them, and the chance of getting to them seemed 
 small ; but it was worth an effort, for by humoring them 
 when they started, so as to let them wheel and zigzag be- 
 fore they became really frightened, and then, when they 
 had settled into their run, by galloping toward them at 
 an angle oblique to their line of flight, there was always 
 some little chance of getting a shot. Sylvane was on a 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 177 
 
 light buckskin horse, and I left him on the ridge crest to 
 occupy their attention while I cantered off to one side. 
 The pronghorns became uneasy as I galloped away, and 
 ran off the ridge crest in a line nearly parallel to mine. 
 They did not go very fast, and I held in Muley, who 
 was all on fire at the sight of the game. After crossing 
 two or three spurs, the antelope going at half speed, they 
 found I had come closer to them, and turning, they ran 
 up one of the valleys between two spurs. Now was my 
 chance, and wheeling at right angles to my former course, 
 I galloped Muley as hard as I knew how up the valley 
 nearest and parallel to where the antelope had gone. The 
 good old fellow ran like a quarter-horse, and when we 
 were almost at the main ridge crest I leaped off, and ran 
 ahead with my rifle at the ready, crouching down as I 
 came to the sky-line. Usually on such occasions I find 
 that the antelope have gone on, and merely catch a 
 glimpse of them half a mile distant, but on this occasion 
 everything went right. The band had just reached the 
 ridge crest about 220 yards from me across the head of 
 the valley, and had halted for a moment to look around. 
 They were starting as I raised my rifle, but the trajectory 
 is very flat with these small-bore smokeless-powder weap- 
 ons, and taking a coarse front sight I fired at a young 
 buck which was broadside to me. There was no smoke, 
 and as the band raced away I saw him sink backward, the 
 ball having broken his hips. 
 
 We packed him bodily behind Sylvane on the buck- 
 skin and continued our ride, as there was no fresh meat 
 in camp, and we wished to bring in a couple of bucks 
 
1/8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 if possible. For two or three hours we saw nothing. The 
 unshod feet of the horses made hardly any noise on the 
 stretches of sun-cured grass, but now and then we passed 
 through patches of thin weeds, their dry stalks rattling 
 curiously, making a sound like that of a rattlesnake. At 
 last, coming over a gentle" rise of ground, we spied two 
 more prongbucks, half a mile ahead of us and to our 
 right. 
 
 Again there seemed small chance of bagging our 
 quarry, but again fortune favored us. I at once can- 
 tered Muley ahead, not toward them, but so as to pass 
 them well on one side. After some hesitation they 
 started, not straight away, but at an angle to my own 
 course. For some moments I kept at a hand gallop, until 
 they got thoroughly settled in their line of flight; then 
 I touched Muley, and he went as hard as he knew how. 
 Immediately the two panic-stricken and foolish beasts 
 seemed to feel that I was cutting oflf their line of retreat, 
 and raced forward at mad speed. They went much faster 
 than I did, but I had the shorter course, and when they 
 crossed me they were not fifty yards ahead — by which 
 time I had come nearly a mile. At the pull of the rein 
 Muley stopped short, like the trained cow-pony he is; 
 I leaped off, and held well ahead of the rearmost and 
 largest buck. At the crack of the little rifle down he went 
 with his neck broken. In a minute or two he was packed 
 behind me on Muley, and we bent our steps toward 
 camp. 
 
 During the remainder of my trip we were never out 
 of fresh meat, for I shot three other bucks — one after a 
 
HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 179 
 
 smart chase on horseback, and the other two after careful 
 stalks; and I missed two running shots. 
 
 The game being both scarce and shy, I had to exer- 
 cise much care, and after sighting a band I would some- 
 times have to wait and crawl round for two or three hours 
 before they would get into a position where I had any 
 chance of approaching. Even then they were more apt 
 to see me and go off than I was to get near them. 
 
 Antelope are the only game that can be hunted as 
 well at noonday as in the morning or evening, for their 
 times for sleeping and. feeding are irregular. They nevei; 
 seek shelter from the sun, and when they lie down for a 
 noonday nap they are apt to choose a hollow, so as to be 
 out of the wind ; in consequence, if the band is seen at all 
 at this time, it is easier to approach them than when they 
 are up and feeding. They sometimes come down to water 
 in the middle of the day, sometimes in the morning or 
 evening. On this trip I came across bands feeding and 
 resting at almost every hour of the day. They seemed 
 usually to rest for a couple of hours, then began feeding 
 again. 
 
 The last shot I got was when I was out with Joe Fer- 
 ris, in whose company I had killed my first buffalo, just 
 thirteen years before, and not very far from this same 
 spot. We had seen two or three bands that morning, 
 and in each case, after a couple of hours of useless effort, 
 I failed to get near enough. At last, toward midday, 
 after riding and tramping over a vast extent of broken 
 sun-scorched country, we got within range of a small 
 band lying down in a little cup-shaped hollow in the 
 
i8o AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 middle of a great flat. I did not have a close shot, for 
 they were running about i8o yards off. The buck was 
 rearmost, and at him I aimed ; the bullet struck him in the 
 flank, coming out of the opposite shoulder, and he fell 
 in his next bound. As we stood over him, Joe shook 
 his head, and said, " I guess that little rifle is the ace ; " 
 and I told him I guessed so too. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A SHOT AT A MOUNTAIN SHEEP 
 
 In the fall of 1893 I was camped on the Little Mis- 
 souri, some ten miles below my ranch. The bottoms were 
 broad and grassy, and were walled in by curving rows of 
 high, steep bluffs. Back of them lay a mass of broken 
 country, in many places almost impassable for horses. 
 The wagon was drawn up on the edge of the fringe of 
 tall cottonwoods which stretched along the brink of the 
 shrunken river. The weather had grown- cold, and at 
 night the frost gathered thickly on our sleeping-bags. 
 Great flocks of sandhill cranes passed overhead from time 
 to time, the air resounding with their strange, musical, 
 guttural clangor. 
 
 For. several days we had hunted perseveringly, but 
 without success, through the broken country. We had 
 come across tracks of mountain sheep, but not the animals 
 themselves, and the few blacktail which we had seen had 
 seen us first and escaped before we could get within shot. 
 The only thing killed had been a young whitetail, which 
 Lambert, who was with me, had knocked over by a very 
 pretty shot as we were riding through a long, heavily- 
 timbered bottom. Four men in stalwart health and tak- 
 ing much out-door exercise have large appetites, and the 
 
 flesh of the whitetail was almost gone. 
 
 181 
 
1 82 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 One evening Lambert and I hunted nearly to the head 
 of one of the creeks which opened close to our camp, and, 
 in turning to descend what we thought was one of the 
 side coulees leading into it, we contrived to get over the 
 divide into the coulees of an entirely different creek sys- 
 tem, and did not discover our error until it was too late 
 to remedy it. We struck the river about nightfall, and 
 were not quite sure where, and had six miles' tramp in 
 the dark along the sandy river bed and through the dense 
 timber bottoms, wading the stream a dozen times before 
 we finally struck camp, tired and hungry, and able to ap- 
 preciate to the full the stew of hot venison and potatoes, 
 and afterward the comfort of our buffalo and caribou 
 hide sleeping-bags. The next morning the Sheriff's re- 
 mark of " Look alive, you fellows, if you want any break- 
 fast," awoke the other members of the party shortly after 
 dawn. It was bitterly cold as we scrambled out of our 
 bedding, and, after a hasty wash, huddled around the fire, 
 where the venison was sizzling and the coffee-pot boiling, 
 while the bread was kept warm in the Dutch oven. 
 About a third of a mile away to the west the bluffs, which 
 rose abruptly from the river bottom, were crowned by 
 a high plateau, where the grass was so good that over- 
 night the horses had been led up and picketed on it, and 
 the man who had led them up had stated the previous 
 evening that he had seen what he took to be fresh foot- 
 prints of a mountain sheep crossing the surface of a bluff 
 fronting our camp. From the footprints it appeared that 
 the animal had been there since the camp was pitched. 
 The face of the bluff on this side was very sheer, the path 
 
i- 
 
 o 
 
 Qi. 
 
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 Qi 
 
 D 
 H 
 
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 Z 
 
 O 
 
 u 
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 3: 
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A SHOT AT A MOUNTAIN SHEEP 183 
 
 by which the horses scrambled to the top being around 
 a shoulder and out of sight of camp. 
 
 While sitting close around the fire finishing break- 
 fast, and just as the first level sunbeams struck the top 
 of the plateau, we saw on this cliff crest something mov- 
 ing, and at first supposed it to be one of the horses which 
 had broken loose from its picket pin. Soon the thing, 
 whatever it was, raised its head, and we were all on our 
 feet in a moment, exclaiming that it was a deer or a 
 sheep. It was feeding in plain sight of us only about a 
 third of a mile distant, and the horses, as I afterward 
 found, were but a few rods beyond it on the plateau. The 
 instant I realized that it was game of some kind I seized 
 my rifle, buckled on my cartridge-belt, and slunk off tow- 
 ard the river bed. As soon as I was under the protection 
 of the line of cottonwoods, I trotted briskly toward the 
 cliff, and when I got up to where it impinged on the 
 river I ran a little to the left, and, selecting what I deemed 
 to be a favorable place, began to make the ascent. The 
 animal was on a grassy bench, some eight or ten feet be- 
 low the crest, when I last saw it; but it was evidently 
 moving hither and thither, sometimes on this bench and 
 sometimes on the crest itself, cropping the short grass 
 and browsing on the young shrubs. The cliff was divided 
 by several shoulders or ridges, there being hollows like 
 vertical gullies between them, and up one of these I 
 scrambled, using the utmost caution not to dislodge earth 
 or stones. Finally I reached the bench just below the sky- 
 line, and then, turning to the left, wriggled cautiously 
 along it, hat in hand. The cliff was so steep and bulged 
 
1 84 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 so in the middle, and, moreover, the shoulders or project- 
 ing ridges in the surface spoken of above were so pro- 
 nounced, that I knew it was out of the question for the 
 animal to have seen me, but I was afraid it might have 
 heard me. The air was absolutely still, and so I had no 
 fear of its sharp nose. Twice in succession I peered with 
 the utmost caution around shoulders of the clifif, merely 
 to see nothing beyond save another shoulder some forty 
 or fifty yards distant. Then I crept up to the edge and 
 looked over the level plateau. Nothing was in sight ex- 
 cepting the horses, and these were close up to me, and, of 
 course, they all raised their heads to look. I nervously 
 turned half round, sure that if the animal, whatever it 
 was, was in sight, it would promptly take the alarm. 
 However, by good luck, it appeared that at this time it 
 was below the crest on the terrace or bench already men- 
 tioned, and, on creeping to the next shoulder, I at last 
 saw it — a yearling mountain sheep — ^walking slowly away 
 from me, and evidently utterly unsuspicious of any dan- 
 ger. I straightened up, bringing my rifle to my shoulder, 
 and as it wheeled I fired, and the sheep made two or three 
 blind jumps in my direction. So close was I to the camp, 
 and so still was the cold morning, that I distinctly heard 
 one of the three men, who had remained clustered about 
 the fire eagerly watching my movements, call, " By 
 George, he's missed! I saw the bullet strike the cliff." 
 I had fired behind the shoulders, and the bullet, going 
 through, had buried itself in the bluff beyond. The 
 wound was almost instantaneously fatal, and the sheep, 
 after striving in vain to keep its balance, fell heels over 
 
A SHOT AT A MOUNTAIN SHEEP 185 
 
 head down a crevice, where it jammed. I descended, 
 released the carcass, and pitched it on ahead of me, only 
 to have it jam again near the foot of the cliff. Before 
 I got it loose I was joined by my three companions, who 
 had been running headlong toward me through the brush 
 ever since the time they had seen the animal fall. 
 
 I never obtained another sheep under circumstances 
 which seemed to me quite so remarkable as these; for 
 sheep are, on the whole, the wariest of game. Neverthe- 
 less, with all game there is an immense amount of chance 
 in the chase, and it is perhaps not wholly uncharacteristic 
 of a hunter's luck that, after having hunted faithfully in 
 vain and with much hard labor for several days through 
 a good sheep country, we should at last have obtained 
 one within sight and earshot of camp. Incidentally I 
 may mention that I have never tasted better mutton, or 
 meat of any kind, than that furnished by this tender 
 yearling. 
 
 The nomenclature and exact specific relationships of 
 American sheep, deer and antelope offer difficulties not 
 only to the hunter but to the naturalist. As regards the 
 nomenclature, we share the trouble encountered by all 
 peoples of European descent who have gone into strange 
 lands. The incomers are almost invariably men who are 
 not accustomed to scientific precision of expression. Like 
 other people, they do not like to invent names if they 
 can by any possibility make use of those already in ex- 
 istence, and so in a large number of cases they call the 
 new birds and animals by names applied to entirely dif- 
 ferent birds and animals of the Old World to which, in 
 
1 86 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the eyes of the settlers, they bear some resemblance. In 
 South America the Spaniards, for instance, christened 
 " lion " and " tiger " the great cats which are properly 
 known as cougar and jaguar. In South Africa the Dutch 
 settlers, who came from a land where all big game had 
 long been exterminated, gave fairly grotesque names to 
 the great antelopes, calling them after the European elk, 
 stag, and chamois. The French did but little better in 
 Canada. Even in Ceylon the English, although belong- 
 ing for the most part to the educated classes, did no better 
 than the ordinary pioneer settlers, miscalling the sambur 
 stag an elk, and the leopard a cheetah. Our own pioneers 
 behaved in the same way. Hence it is that we have no 
 distinctive name at all for the group of peculiarly Ameri- 
 can game birds of which the bobwhite is the typical rep- 
 resentative; and that, when we could not use the words 
 quail, partridge, or pheasant, we went for our termi- 
 nology to the barn-yard, and called our fine grouse, fool- 
 hens, sage-hens, and prairie-chickens. The bear and wolf 
 our people recognized at once. The bison they called a 
 buffalo, which was no worse than the way in which in 
 Europe the Old World bison was called an aurochs. 
 The American true elk and reindeer were rechristened 
 moose and caribou — excellent names, by the way, de- 
 rived from the Indian. The huge stag was called an elk. 
 The extraordinary antelope of the high Western peaks 
 was christened the white goat; not unnaturally, as it has 
 a most goatlike look. The prongbuck of the plains, an 
 animal standing entirely alone among ruminants, was 
 simply called antelope. Even when we invented names 
 
A SHOT AT A MOUNTAIN SHEEP 187 
 
 for ourselves, we applied them loosely. The ordinary 
 deer is sometimes known as the red deer, sometimes as 
 the Virginia deer, and sometimes as the whitetail deer — 
 the last being by far the best and most distinctive term. 
 
 In the present condition of zoological research it is 
 not possible to state accurately how many " species " of 
 deer and sheep there are in North America, both because 
 mammalogists have not at hand a sufficient amount of 
 material in the way of large series of specimens from dif- 
 ferent localities, and because they are not agreed among 
 themselves as to the value of " species," or indeed as to 
 exactly what is denoted by the term. Of course, if we 
 had a complete series of specimens of extinct and fossil 
 deer before us, there would be a perfect intergradation 
 among all the existing forms through their long-vanished 
 ancestral types, as the existing gaps have been created by 
 the extinction and transformation of those former types. 
 Where the gap is very broad and well marked no dif- 
 ficulty exists in using terms which shall express the dif- 
 ference. Thus the gap separating the moose, the caribou, 
 and the wapiti from one another, and from the smaller 
 American deer, is so wide, and there is so complete a lack 
 of transitional forms, that the diflferences among them are 
 expressed by naturalists by the use of different generic 
 terms. The gap between the whitetail and the different 
 forms of blacktail, though much less, is also clearly 
 marked. But when we come to consider the blacktail 
 among themselves, we find two very distinct types which 
 yet show a certain tendency to intergrade; and with the 
 whitetail very wide differences exist, even in the United 
 
i88 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 States, both individually among the deer of certain locali- 
 ties, and also as between all the deer of one locality when 
 compared with all the deer of another. Our present 
 knowledge of the various forms hardly justifies us in dog- 
 matizing as to their exact relative worth; and even if our 
 knowledge was more complete, naturalists are as yet 
 wholly at variance as to the laws which should govern 
 specific nomenclature. However, the hunter, the mere 
 field naturalist, and the lover of out-door life, are only 
 secondarily interested in the niceness of these distinc- 
 tions. 
 
 In addition to being a true sportsman and not a game 
 butcher, in addition to being a humane man as well as 
 keen-eyed, strong-limbed, and stout-hearted, the big 
 game hunter should be a field naturalist. If possible, 
 he should be an adept with the camera ; and hunting with 
 the camera will tax his skill far more than hunting with 
 the rifle, while the results in the long run give much 
 greater satisfaction. Wherever possible he should keep 
 a note-book, and should carefully study and record the 
 habits of the wild creatures, especially when in some 
 remote regions to which trained scientific observers but 
 rarely have access. If we could only produce a hunter 
 who would do for American big game what John Bur- 
 roughs has done for the smaller wild life of hedgerow 
 and orchard, farm and garden and grove, we should in- 
 deed be fortunate. Yet even though a man does not 
 possess the literary faculty and the powers of trained 
 observation necessary for such a task, he can do his part 
 toward adding to our information by keeping careful 
 
A SHOT AT A MOUNTAIN SHEEP 189 
 
 notes of all the important facts which he comes across. 
 Such note-books would show the changed habits of game 
 with the changed seasons, their abundance at different 
 times and different places, the melancholy data of their 
 disappearance, the pleasanter facts as to their change 
 of habits which enable them to continue to exist in the 
 land, and, in short, all their traits. A real and lasting 
 service would thereby be rendered not only to naturalists, 
 but to all who care for nature. 
 
 Along the Little Missouri there have been several 
 curious changes in the fauna within my own knowledge. 
 Thus magpies have greatly decreased in numbers. This 
 is, I believe, owing to the wolf hunters, for magpies often 
 come around carcasses and pick up poisoned baits. I 
 have seen as many as seven lying dead around a bait. 
 They are much less plentiful than they formerly were. 
 In 1894 I was rather surprised at meeting a porcupine, 
 usually a beast of the timber, at least twenty miles from 
 trees. He was grubbing after sage-brush roots on the edge 
 of a cut bank by a half-dried creek. I was stalking an 
 antelope at the time, and stopped to watch him for about 
 five minutes. He paid no heed to me, though I was 
 within three or four paces of him. Porcupines are easily 
 exterminated; and they have diminished in numbers in 
 this neighborhood. Both the lucivee, or northern lynx, 
 and the wolverene have been found on the Little Mis- 
 souri, near the Kildeer Mountains, but I do not know 
 of a specimen of either that has been killed there for 
 some years past. Bobcats are still not uncommon. The 
 blackfooted ferret was always rare, and is rare now. But 
 
190 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 few beaver are left; they were very abundant in 1880, 
 but were speedily trapped out when the Indians vanished 
 and the Northern Pacific Railroad was built. While 
 this railroad was building, the beaver frequently caused 
 much trouble by industriously damming the culverts. 
 
 With us the first animal to disappear was the buffalo. 
 In the old days, say from 1870 to 1880, the buffalo were 
 probably the most abundant of all animals along the Lit- 
 tle Missouri in the region that I know, ranging, say, from 
 Pretty Buttes to the Kildeer Mountains. They were mi- 
 gratory, and at times almost all of therh might leave ; but, 
 on the whole, they were the most abundant of the game 
 animals. In 1881 they were still almost as numerous as 
 ever. In 1883 all were killed but a few stragglers, and 
 the last of these stragglers that I heard of as seen in our 
 immediate neighborhood was in 1885. The second game 
 animal in point of abundance was the blacktail.. It did not 
 go out on the prairies, but in the broken country adjoining 
 the river it was far more plentiful than any other kind of 
 game. Blacktail were not much slaughtered until the 
 buffalo began to give out, say in 1882; but by 1896 they 
 were not a twentieth — probably not a fiftieth — as plenti- 
 ful as they had been in 1882. A few are still found in 
 out-of-the-way places, where the ground is very rough. 
 Elk were plentiful in 1880, though never anything like 
 as abundant as the buffalo and the blacktail. Only strag- 
 gling parties or individuals have been seen since 1883. 
 The last I shot near my ranch was in 1886; but two or 
 three have been shot since, and a cow and calf were seen, 
 chased and almost roped by the riders on the round-up 
 
A SHOT AT A MOUNTAIN SHEEP 191 
 
 in the fall of 1893. Whitetail were never as numer- 
 ous as the other game, but they held their own better, 
 and a few can be shot yet. In 1883 probably twenty 
 blacktail were killed for every one whitetail; in 1896 
 the numbers were about equal. Antelope were plenti- 
 ful in the old days, though not nearly so much so as the 
 buffalo and blacktail. The hunters did not molest them 
 while the buffalo and elk lasted, and they then turned 
 their attention to the blacktail. For some years after 
 1889 I think the pronghorn in our neighborhood posi- 
 tively increased in numbers. In 1886 I thought them 
 more plentiful than I had ever known them before. 
 Then they decreased; after 1894 the decrease was rapid. 
 A few still remain. Mountain sheep were never very 
 plentiful, and decreased proportionately with less rapid- 
 ity than any other game ; but they are now almost exter- 
 minated. Bears likewise were never plentiful, and cou- 
 gars were always scarce. 
 
 There were two stages of hunting in this country, as 
 in almost all other countries similarly situated. In 1880 
 the Northern Pacific Railroad was built nearly to the 
 edge of the Bad Lands, and the danger of Indian war 
 was totally eliminated. A great inrush of hunters fol- 
 lowed. In 1 88 1, 1882 and 1883 buffalo, elk and black- 
 tail were slaughtered in enormous numbers, and a good 
 many whitetail and prongbuck were killed too. By 1884 
 the game had been so thinned out that hide-hunting and 
 meat-hunting ceased to pay. A few professional hunt- 
 ers remained, but most of them moved elsewhere, or 
 were obliged to go into other business. From that time 
 
192 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the hunting has chiefly been done by ranchers and occa- 
 sional small grangers. In consequence, for six or eight 
 years the game about held its own — the antelope, as I 
 have said above, at one time increasing; but the gradual 
 growth in the number of actual settlers then began to tell, 
 and the game became scarce. Nowadays settlers along 
 the Little Missouri can kill an occasional deer or ante- 
 lope ; but it can hardly be called a game country. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE WHITETAIL DEER 
 
 The whitetail deer is now, as it always has been, the 
 most plentiful and most widely distributed of American 
 big game. It holds its own in the land better than any 
 other species, because it is by choice a dweller in the 
 thick forests and swamps, the places around which the 
 tide of civilization flows, leaving them as islets of refuge 
 for the wild creatures which formerly haunted all the 
 country. The range of the whitetail is from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific, and from the Canadian to the Mexican 
 borders, and somewhat to the north and far to the south 
 of these limits. The animal shows a wide variability, 
 both individually and locally, within these confines ; from 
 the hunter's standpoint it is not necessary to try to deter- 
 mine exactly the weight that attaches to these local varia- 
 tions. 
 
 There is also a very considerable variation in habits. 
 As compared with the mule-deer, the whitetail is not 
 a lover of the mountains. As compared with the prong- 
 buck, it is not a lover of the treeless plains. Yet in the 
 AUeghanies and the Adirondacks, at certain seasons espe- 
 cially, and in some places at all seasons, it dwells high 
 among the densely wooded mountains, wandering over 
 their crests and sheer sides, and through the deep ravines; 
 
 193 
 
194 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 while in the old days there were parts of Texas and the 
 Indian Territory where it was found in great herds far 
 out on the prairie. Moreover, the peculiar nature of its 
 chosen habitat, while generally enabling it to resist the 
 onslaught of man longer than any of its fellows, some- 
 times exposes it to speedy extermination. To the west- 
 ward of the rich bottom-lands and low prairies of the 
 Mississippi Valley proper, when the dry plains country 
 is reached, the natural conditions are much less favorable 
 for whitetail than for other big game. The black bear, 
 which in the East has almost precisely the same habitat 
 as the whitetail, disappears entirely on the great plains, 
 and reappears in the Rockies in regions which the white- 
 tail does not reach. All over the great plains, into the 
 foothills of the Rockies, the whitetail is found, but only 
 in the thick timber of the river bottoms. Throughout 
 the regions of the Upper Missouri and Upper Platte, the 
 Big Horn, Powder, Yellowstone, and Cheyenne, over all 
 of which I have hunted, the whitetail lives among the 
 Cottonwood groves and dense brush growth that fringe 
 the river beds and here and there extend some distance 
 up the mouths of the large creeks. In these places the 
 whitetail and the mule-deer may exist in close proximity; 
 but normally neither invades the haunts of the other. 
 
 Along the ordinary plains river, such as the Little 
 Missouri, where I ranched for many years, there are 
 three entirely different types of country through which 
 a man passes as he travels away from the bed of the river. 
 There is first the alluvial river bottom covered with 
 Cottonwood and box-elder, together with thick brush. 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 195 
 
 These bottoms may be a mile or two across, or they may 
 shrink to but a few score yards. After the extermination 
 of the wapiti, which roamed everywhere, the only big 
 game animal found in them was the whitetail deer. 
 Beyond this level alluvial bottom the ground changes 
 abruptly to bare, rugged hills or fantastically carved and 
 shaped Bad Lands rising on either side of the river, the 
 ravines, coulees, creeks, and canyons twisting through 
 them in every direction. Here there are patches of ash, 
 cedar, pine, and occasionally other trees, but the country 
 is very rugged, and the cover very scanty. This is the 
 home of the 4nule- deer, and, in the roughest and wildest 
 parts, of the bighorn. The absolutely clear and sharply 
 defined line of demarkation between this rough, hilly 
 country, flanking the river, and the alluvial river bottom, 
 serves as an equally clearly marked line of demarkation 
 between the ranges of the whitetail and the mule-deer. 
 This belt of broken country may be only a few hundred 
 yards in width; or it may extend for a score of miles 
 before it changes into the open prairies, the high plains 
 proper. As soon as these are reached, the prongbuck's 
 domain begins. 
 
 As the plains country is passed, and the vast stretches 
 of mountainous region entered, the river bottoms become 
 narrower, and the plains on which the prongbuck is found 
 become of very limited extent, shrinking to high valleys 
 and plateaus, while the mass of rugged foothills and 
 mountains add immensely to the area of the mule-deer's 
 habitat. 
 
 Given equal areas of country, of the three different 
 
196 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 types alluded to above, that in which the mule-deer is 
 found offers the greatest chance of success to the rifle- 
 bearing hunter, because there is enough cover to shield 
 him and not enough to allow his quarry to escape by 
 stealth and hiding. On the other hand, the thick river 
 bottoms offer him the greatest difficulty. In consequence, 
 where the areas of distribution of the different game ani- 
 mals are about equal, the mule-deer disappears first be- 
 fore the hunter, the prongbuck next, while the whitetail 
 holds out the best of all. I saw this frequently on the Yel- 
 lowstone, the Powder, and the Little Missouri. When 
 the ranchmen first came into this country the mule-deer 
 swarmed, and yielded a far more certain harvest to the 
 hunter than did either the prongbuck or the whitetail. 
 They were the first to be thinned out, the prongbuck last- 
 ing much better. The cowboys and small ranchmen, 
 most of whom did not at the time have hounds, then 
 followed the prongbuck; and this, in its turn, was killed 
 out before the whitetail. But in other places a slight 
 change in the conditions completely reversed the order 
 of destruction. In parts of Wyoming and Montana the 
 mountainous region where the mule-deer dwelt was of 
 such vast extent, and the few river bottoms on which the 
 whitetail were found were so easily hunted, that the 
 whitetail was completely exterminated throughout large 
 districts where the mule-deer continued to abound. 
 Moreover, in these regions the table-lands and plains 
 upon which the prongbuck was found were limited in 
 extent, and although the prongbuck outlasted the white- 
 tail, it vanished long before the herds of the mule-deer 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 197 
 
 had been destroyed from among the neighboring moun- 
 tains. 
 
 The whitetail was originally far less common in the 
 forests of northern New England than was the moose, 
 for in the deep snows the moose had a much better chance 
 to escape from its brute foes and to withstand cold and 
 starvation. But when man appeared upon the scene he 
 followed the moose so much more eagerly than he fol- 
 lowed the deer that the conditions were reversed and the 
 moose was killed out. The moose thus vanished entirely 
 from the Adirondacks, and almost entirely from Maine ; 
 but the excellent game laws of the latter State, and the 
 honesty and efficiency with which they have been exe- 
 cuted during the last twenty years, have resulted in an 
 increase of moose during that time. During the same 
 period the whitetail deer has increased to an even greater 
 extent. It is doubtless now more plentiful in New York 
 and New England than it was a quarter of a century 
 ago. Stragglers are found in Connecticut, and, what is 
 still more extraordinary, even occasionally come into 
 wild parts of densely populated little Rhode Island — my 
 authority for the last statement being Mr. C. Grant 
 La Farge. Of all our wild game, the whitetail responds 
 most quickly to the efforts for its protection, and except 
 the wapiti, it thrives best in semi-domestication ; in con- 
 sequence, it has proved easy to preserve it, even in such 
 places as Cape Cod in Massachusetts and Long Island 
 in New York; while it has increased greatly in Vermont, 
 New Hampshire, and Maine, and has more than held 
 its own in the Adirondacks. Mr. James R. Sheffield, 
 
198 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 of New York City, in the summer of 1899, spent several 
 weeks on a fishing trip through northern Maine. He 
 kept -count of the moose and deer he saw, and came 
 across no less than thirty-five of the former and over five 
 hundred and sixty of the latter. In the most lonely parts 
 of the forest deer were found by the score, feeding in 
 broad daylight on the edges of the ponds. Deer are still 
 plentiful in many parts of the Alleghany Mountains, 
 from Pennsylvania southward, and also in the swamps 
 and canebrakes of the South Atlantic and Gulf States. 
 Where the differences in habitat and climate are so 
 great there are many changes of habits, and some of them 
 of a noteworthy kind. Mr. John A. Mcllhenny, of 
 Avery's Island, Louisiana, formerly a lieutenant in my 
 regiment, lives in what is still a fine game country. His 
 plantation is in the delta of the Mississippi, among the 
 vast marshes, north of which lie the wooded swamps. 
 Both the marshes and the swamps were formerly literally 
 thronged with whitetail deer, and the animals are still 
 plentiful in them. Mr. Mcllhenny has done much deer- 
 hunting, always using hounds. He informs me that the 
 breeding times are unexpectedly different from those of 
 the northern deer. In the North, in different localities, 
 the rut takes place in October or November, and the 
 fawns are dropped in May or June. In the Louisiana 
 marshes around Avery's Island the rut begins early in 
 July and the fawns are dropped in February. In the 
 swamps immediately north of these marshes the dates are 
 fully a month later. The marshes are covered with tall 
 reeds and grass and broken by bayous, while there are 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 199 
 
 scattered over them what are called " islands " of firmer 
 ground overgrown with timber. In this locality the deer 
 live in the same neighborhood all the year round, just as, 
 for instance, they do on Long Island. So on the Little 
 Missouri, in the neighborhood of my ranch, they lived in 
 exactly the same localities throughout the entire year. 
 Occasionally they would shift from one river bottom to 
 another, or go a few miles up or down stream because of 
 scarcity of food. But there was no general shifting. 
 
 On the Little Missouri, in one place where they were 
 not molested, I knew a particular doe and fawn with 
 whose habits I became quite intimately acquainted. 
 When the moon was full they fed chiefly by night, and 
 spent most of the day lying in the thick brush. When 
 there was little or no moon they would begin to feed early 
 in the morning, then take a siesta, and then — ^what struck 
 me as most curious of all — ^vyould go to a little willow- 
 bordered pool about noon to drink, feeding for some time 
 both before and after drinking. After another siesta they 
 would come out late in the afternoon and feed until dark. 
 
 In the Adirondacks the deer often completely alter 
 their habits at different seasons. Soon after the fawns 
 are born they come down to the water's edge, preferring 
 the neighborhood of the lakes, but also haunting the 
 stream banks. The next three months, during the hot 
 weather, they keep very close to the water, and get a large 
 proportion of their food by wading in after the lilies and 
 other aquatic plants. Where they are much hunted, they 
 only come to the water's edge after dark, but in regions 
 where they are little disturbed they are quite as often 
 
200 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 diurnal in their habits. I have seen dozens feeding in 
 the neighborhood of a lake, some of them two or three 
 hundred yards out in shallow places, up to their bellies ; 
 and this after sunrise, or two or three hours before sunset. 
 Before September the deer cease coming to the water, 
 and go back among the dense forests and on the moun- 
 tains. There is no genuine migration, as in the case of 
 the mule-deer, from one big tract to another, and no en- 
 tire desertion of any locality. But the food supply which 
 drew the animals to the water's edge during the summer 
 months shows signs of exhaustion toward fall; the deli- 
 cate water-plants have vanished, the marsh-grass is dying, 
 and the lilies are less succulent. An occasional deer still 
 wanders along the shores or out into the lake, but most 
 of them begin to roam the woods, eating the berries and 
 the leaves and twig ends of the deciduous trees, and even 
 of some of the conifers — although a whitetail is fond of 
 grazing, especially upon the tips of the grass. I have 
 seen moose feeding on the tough old lily stems and wad- 
 ing after them when the ice had skimmed the edges of 
 the pool. But the whitetail has usually gone back into 
 the woods long before freezing-time. 
 
 From Long Island south there is not enough snow to 
 make the deer alter their habits in the winter. As soon 
 as the rut is over, which in different localities may be 
 from October to December, whitetail are apt to band to- 
 gether — more apt than at any other season, although even 
 then they are often found singly or in small parties. 
 While nursing, the does have been thin, and at the end 
 of the rut the bucks are gaunt, with their necks swollen 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 201 
 
 and distended. From that time on bucks and does alike 
 put on flesh very rapidly in preparation for the winter. 
 Where there is no snow, or not enough to interfere with 
 their travelling, they continue to roam anywhere through 
 the woods and across the natural pastures and meadows, 
 eating twigs, buds, nuts, and the natural hay which is 
 cured on the stalk. 
 
 In the Northern woods they form yards during the 
 winter. These yards are generally found in a hardwood 
 growth which offers a supply of winter food, and consist 
 simply of a tangle of winding trails beaten out through 
 the snow by the incessant passing and repassing of the 
 animal. The yard merely enables the deer to move along 
 the various paths in order to obtain food. If there are 
 many deer together, the yards may connect by interlacing 
 paths, so that a deer can run a considerable distance 
 through them. Often, however, each deer will yard by 
 itself, as food is the prime consideration, and a given 
 locality may only have enough to support a single animal. 
 When the snows grow deep the deer is wholly unable to 
 move, once the yard is left, and hence it is absolutely at 
 the mercy of a man on snow-shoes, or of a cougar or a 
 wolf, if found at such times. The man on snow-shoes 
 can move very comfortably; and the cougar and the wolf, 
 although hampered by the snow, are not rendered help- 
 less like the deer. I have myself scared a deer out of a 
 yard, and seen it flounder helplessly in a great drift be- 
 fore it had gone thirty rods. When I came up close it 
 ploughed its way a very short distance through the drifts, 
 making tremendous leaps. But as the snow was over six 
 
202 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 feet deep, so that the deer sank below the level of the sur- 
 face at each jump, and yet could not get its feet on the 
 solid ground, it became so exhausted that it fell over on 
 its side and bleated in terror as I came up. After looking 
 at it I passed on. Hide-hunters and frontier settlers some- 
 times go out after the deer on snow-shoes when there is 
 a crust, and hence this method of killing is called crust- 
 ing. It is simple butchery, for the deer cannot, as the 
 moose does, cause its pursuer a chase which may last 
 days. No self-respecting man would follow this method 
 of hunting save from the necessity of having meat. 
 
 In very wild localities deer sometimes yard on the ice 
 along the edges of lakes, eating off all the twigs and 
 branches, whether of hardwood trees or of conifers, 
 which they can reach. 
 
 At the beginning of the rut the does flee from the 
 bucks, which follow them by scent at full speed. The 
 whitetail buck rarely tries to form a herd of does, though 
 he will sometimes gather two or three. The mere fact 
 that his tactics necessitate a long and arduous chase after 
 each individual doe prevents his organizing herds as the 
 wapiti bull does. Sometimes two or three bucks will be 
 found strung out one behind the other, following the 
 same doe. The bucks wage desperate battle among them- 
 selves during this season, coming together with a clash, 
 and then pushing and straining for an hour or two at a 
 time, with their mouths open, until the weakest gives way. 
 As soon as one abandons the fight he flees with all possible 
 speed, and usually escapes unscathed. While head to 
 head there is no opportunity for a disabling thrust, but 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 203 
 
 if, in the effort to retreat, the beaten buck gets caught, 
 he may be killed. Owing to the character of the antlers, 
 whitetail bucks are peculiarly apt to get them interlocked 
 in such a fight, and if the efforts of the two beasts fail to 
 disentangle them, both ultimately perish by starvation. 
 I have several times come across a pair of skulls with 
 interlocked antlers. • The same thing occurs, though far 
 less frequently, to the mule-deer and even the wapiti. 
 
 The whitetail is the most beautiful and graceful of 
 all our game animals when in motion. I have never been 
 able to agree with Judge Caton that the mule-deer is 
 clumsy and awkward in his gait. I suppose all such terms 
 are relative. Compared to the moose or caribou the 
 mule-deer is light and quick in his movements, and to 
 me there is something very attractive in the poise and 
 power with which one of the great bucks bounds off, all 
 four legs striking the earth together and shooting the 
 body upward and forward as if they were steel springs. 
 But there can be no question as to the infinitely superior 
 grace and beauty of the whitetail when he either trots 
 or runs. The mule-deer and blacktail bound, as already 
 described. The prongbuck gallops with an even gait, 
 and so does the bighorn, when it happens to be caught 
 on a flat; but the whitetail moves with an indescribable 
 spring and buoyancy. If surprised close up, and much 
 terrified, it simply runs away as hard as it can, at a gait 
 not materially different from that of any other game 
 animal under like circumstances, while its head is thrust 
 forward and held down, and the tail is raised perpendic- 
 ularly. But normally its mode of progression, whether 
 
204 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 it trots or gallops, is entirely unique. In trotting, the head 
 and tail are both held erect, and the animal throws out 
 its legs with a singularly proud and free motion, bringing 
 the feet well up, while at every step there is an inde- 
 scribable spring. In the canter or gallop the head and 
 tail are also held erect, the flashing white brush being 
 very conspicuous. Three or four low, long, marvellously 
 springy bounds are taken, and then a great leap is made 
 high in the air, which is succeeded by three or four low 
 bounds, and then by another high leap. A whitetail 
 going through the brush in this manner is a singularly 
 beautiful sight. It has been my experience that they are 
 not usually very much frightened by an ordinary slow 
 trackhound, and I have seen a buck play along in front 
 of one, alternately trotting and cantering, head and flag 
 up, and evidently feeling very little fear. 
 
 To my mind the chase of the whitetail, as it must 
 usually be carried on, offers less attraction than the chase 
 of any other kind of our large game. But this is a 
 mere matter of taste, and such men as Judge Caton and 
 Mr. George Bird Grinnell have placed it above all others 
 as a game animal. Personally I feel that the chase of any 
 animal has in it two chief elements of attraction. The 
 first is the chance given to be in the wilderness; to see 
 the sights and hear the sounds of wild nature. The sec- 
 ond is the demand made by the particular kind of chase 
 upon the qualities of manliness and hardihood. As re- 
 gards the first, some kinds of game, of course, lead the 
 hunter into particularly remote and wild localities ; and 
 the farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 205 
 
 attraction of its lonely freedom. Yet to camp out at all 
 implies some measure of this delight. The keen, fresh 
 air, the breath of the pine forests, the glassy stillness of 
 the lake at sunset, the glory of sunrise among the moun- 
 tains, the shimmer of the endless prairies, the ceaseless 
 rustle of the Cottonwood leaves where the wagon is drawn 
 up on the low bluff of the shrunken river — all these ap- 
 peal intensely to any man, no matter what may be the 
 game he happens to be following. But there is a wide 
 variation, and indeed contrast, in the qualities called for 
 in the chase itself, according as one quarry or another 
 is sought. 
 
 The qualities that make a good soldier are, in large 
 part, the qualities that make a good hunter. Most impor- 
 tant of all is the ability to shift for one's self, the mixture 
 of hardihood and resourcefulness which enables a man 
 to tramp all day in the right direction, and, when night 
 comes, to make the best of whatever opportunities for 
 shelter and warmth may be at hand. Skill in the use 
 of the rifle is another trait; quickness in seeing game, 
 another ; ability to take advantage of cover, yet another ; 
 while patience, endurance, keenness of observation, res- 
 olution, good nerves, and instant readiness in an emer- 
 gency, are all indispensable to a really good hunter. 
 
 If a man lives on a ranch, or is passing some weeks 
 in a lodge in a game country, and starts out for two or 
 three days, he will often do well to carry nothing what- 
 ever but a blanket, a frying-pan, some salt p.ork, and some 
 hardtack. If the hunting-ground is such that he can use 
 a wagon or a canoe, and the trip is not to be too long. 
 
2o6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 he can carry about anything he chooses, including a tent, 
 any amount of bedding, and if it is very cold, a small, 
 portable stove, not to speak of .elaborate cooking ap- 
 paratus. If he goes with a pack-train, he will also be 
 able to carry a good deal ; but in such a case he must rely 
 on the judgment of the trained packers, unless he is him- 
 self an expert in the diamond hitch. If it becomes nec- 
 essary to go on foot for any length of time, he must be 
 prepared to do genuine roughing, and must get along 
 with the minimum of absolute necessities. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to point out that the hunter 
 worthy of the name should be prepared to shift for him- 
 self in emergencies. A ranchman, or any other man 
 whose business takes him much in the mountains and out 
 on the great plains or among the forests, ought to be 
 able to get along entirely on his own account. But this 
 cannot usually be done by those whose existence is habit- 
 ually more artificial. When a man who normally lives 
 a rather over-civilized life, an over-luxurious life — espe- 
 cially in the great cities — gets off for a few weeks' hunt- 
 ing, he cannot expect to accomplish much in the way of 
 getting game without calling upon the services of a 
 trained guide, woodsman, plainsman, or mountain man, 
 whose life-work it has been to make himself an adept 
 in all the craft of the wilderness. Until a man unused to 
 wilderness life, even though a good sportsman, has act- 
 ually tried it, he has no idea of the difficulties and hard- 
 ships of shifting absolutely for himself, even for only two 
 or three days. Not only will the local guide have the 
 necessary knowledge as to precisely which one of two 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 207 
 
 seemingly similar places is most apt to contain game; 
 not only will he possess the skill in packing horses, or 
 handling a canoe in rough water, or finding his way 
 through the wilderness, which the amateur must lack; 
 but even the things which the amateur does, the profes- 
 sional will do so much more easily and rapidly, as in the 
 one case to leave, and in the other case not to leave, 
 ample time for the hunting proper. Therefore the or- 
 dinary amateur sportsman, especially if he lives in a 
 city, must count upon the services of trained men, possi- 
 bly to help him in hunting, certainly to help him in trav- 
 elling, cooking, pitching camp, and the like; and this 
 he must do, if he expects to get good sport, no matter 
 how hardy he may be, and no matter how just may be 
 the pride he ought to take in his own craft, skill, and 
 capacity to undergo fatigue and exposure. But while 
 normally he must take advantage of the powers of others, 
 he should certainly make a point of being able to shift 
 for himself whenever the need arises; and he can only 
 be sure of possessing this capacity by occasionally exer- 
 cising it. It ought to be unnecessary to point out that 
 the wilderness is not a place for those who are dependent 
 upon luxuries, and above all for those who make a camp- 
 ing trip an excuse for debauchery. Neither the man who 
 wants to take a French cook and champagne on a hunting 
 trip, nor his equally objectionable though less wealthy 
 brother who is chiefly concerned with filling and empty- 
 ing a large whiskey jug, has any place whatever in the 
 real life of the wilderness. 
 - The chase of an animal should rank according as it 
 
2o8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 calls for the exercise in a high degree of a large num- 
 ber of these qualities. The grizzly is almost our only 
 dangerous game, and under certain conditions shooting 
 the grizzly calls for considerable courage on the part of 
 the hunter. Disregarding these comparatively rare occa- 
 sions, the chase of mountain game, especially the big- 
 horn, demands more hardihood, power of endurance, and 
 moral and physical soundness than any other kind of 
 sport, and so must come first. The wapiti and mule- 
 deer rank next, for they too must be killed by stalking 
 as a result of long tramps over very rough ground. To 
 kill a moose by still hunting is a feat requiring a high 
 degree of skill, and entailing severe fatigue. When game 
 is followed on horseback, it means that the successful 
 hunter must ride well and boldly. 
 
 The whitetail is occasionally found where it yields 
 a very high quality of sport. But normally it lives in 
 regions where it is extremely difficult to kill it legiti- 
 mately, as the wapiti and mule-deer are killed, and yet 
 comparatively easy to kill it under circumstances which 
 make no demand for any particular prowess on the part 
 of the hunter. It is far more difficult to still hunt suc- 
 cessfully in the dense brushy timber frequented by the 
 whitetail than in the open glades, the mountains, and 
 the rocky hills, through which the wapiti and mule-deer 
 wander. The difficulty arises, however, because the chief 
 requirement is stealth, noiselessness. The man who goes 
 out into the hills for a mule-deer must walk hard and 
 far, must be able to bear fatigue, and possibly thirst and 
 hunger, must have keen eyes, and be a good shot. He 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 209 
 
 does not need to display the extraordinary power of 
 stealthy advance which is necessary to the man who would 
 creep up to and kill a whitetail in thick timber. Now, 
 the qualities of hardihood and endurance are better than 
 the quality of stealth, and though all three are necessary 
 in both kinds of chase, yet it is the chase of the mule- 
 deer which most develops the former, and the chase of 
 the whitetail which most develops the latter. When the 
 woods are bare and there is some snow on the ground, 
 however, still hunting the whitetail becomes not only 
 possible, but a singularly manly and attractive kind of 
 sport. Where the whitetail can be followed with horse 
 and hound, the sport is also of a very high order. To 
 be able to ride through woods and over rough country 
 at full speed, rifle or shotgun in hand, and then to leap 
 off and shoot at a running object, is to show that one has 
 the qualities which made the cavalry of Forrest so for- 
 midable in the Civil War. There could be no better 
 training for the mounted rifleman, the most efficient type 
 of modern soldier. 
 
 By far the easiest way to kill the whitetail is in one 
 or other of certain methods which entail very little work 
 or skill on the part of the hunter. The most noxious 
 of these, crusting in the deep snows, has already been 
 spoken of. No sportsman worthy of the name would 
 ever follow so butcherly a method. Fire hunting must 
 also normally be ruled out. It is always mere murder 
 if carried on by a man who sits up at a lick, and is not 
 much better where the hunter walks through the fields — 
 not to mention the fact that on such a walk he is quite 
 
21 o AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 as apt to kill stock as to kill a deer. But fire hunting 
 from a boat, or jacking, as it is called, though it entails 
 absolutely no skill in the hunter, and though it is, and 
 ought to be, forbidden, as it can best be carried on at 
 the season when nursing does are particularly apt to be 
 the victims, nevertheless has a certain charm of its own. 
 The first deer I ever killed, when a boy, was obtained 
 in this way, and I have always been glad to have had 
 the experience, though I have never been willing to 
 repeat it. I was at the time camped out in the Adiron- 
 dacks. 
 
 Two or three of us, all boys of fifteen or sixteen, had 
 been enjoying what was practically our first experience 
 in camping out, having gone out with two guides, Hank 
 Martin and Mose Sawyer, from Paul Smith's on Lake 
 St. Regis. My brother and cousin were fond of fishing 
 and I was not, so I was deputed to try to bring in a 
 deer. I had a double-barrelled 12-bore gun, French pin- 
 fire, with which I had industriously collected " speci- 
 mens " on a trip to Egypt and Palestine and on Long 
 Island ; except for three or four enthralling but not over- 
 successful days after woodcock and quail, I had done 
 no game shooting. As to every healthy boy with a taste 
 for out-door life, the Northern forests were to me a veri- 
 table land of enchantment. We were encamped by a 
 stream among the tall pines, and I had enjoyed every- 
 thing; poling and paddling the boat, tramping through 
 the woods, the cries of chickaree and chipmunk, of jay, 
 woodpecker, chickadee, nuthatch, and cross-bill, which 
 broke the forest stillness; and, above all, the great reaches 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 211 
 
 of sombre woodland themselves. The heart-shaped foot- 
 prints which showed where the deer had come down to 
 drink and feed on the marshy edges of the water made 
 my veins thrill; and the nights around the flickering 
 camp-fire seemed filled with romance. 
 
 My first experiment in jacking was a failure. The 
 jack, a bark lantern, was placed upon a stick in the bow 
 of the boat, and I sat in a cramped huddle behind it, while 
 Mose Sawyer plied the paddle with noiseless strength 
 and skill in the stern. I proved unable to respond even 
 to the very small demand made upon me, for when we 
 actually did come upon a deer I failed to see it until 
 it ran, when I missed it ; and on the way back capped my 
 misfortune by shooting a large owl which perched on a 
 log projecting into the water, looking at the lantern with 
 two glaring eyes. 
 
 All next day I was miserably conscious of the smoth- 
 ered disfavor of my associates, and when night fell was 
 told I would have another chance to redeem myself. 
 This time we started across a carry, the guide carrying 
 the light boat, and launched it in a quiet little pond 
 about a mile oflf. Dusk was just turning into darkness 
 when we reached the edge of the little lake, which was 
 perhaps a mile long by three-quarters of a mile across, 
 with indented shores. We did not push off for half an 
 hour or so, until it was entirely dark; and then for a 
 couple of hours we saw no deer. Nevertheless, I thor- 
 oughly enjoyed the ghostly, mysterious, absolutely silent 
 night ride over the water. Not the faintest splash be- 
 trayed the work of the paddler. The boat glided stealth- 
 
212 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 ily alongshore, the glare of the lantern bringing out for 
 one moment every detail of the forest growth on the 
 banks, which the next second vanished into absolute 
 blackness. Several times we saw muskrats swimming 
 across the lane of light cut by the lantern through the 
 darkness, and two or three times their sudden plunging 
 and splashing caused my heart to leap. Once when we 
 crossed the lake we came upon a loon floating buoyantly 
 right out in the middle of it. It stayed until we were 
 within ten yards, so that I could see the minute outlines 
 of the feathers and every movement of the eye. Then 
 it swam off, but made no cry. At last, while crossing 
 the mouth of a bay we heard a splashing sound among 
 the lilies inshore, which even my untrained ears recog- 
 nized as different from any of the other noises we had 
 yet heard, and a jarring motion of the paddle showed 
 that the paddler wished me to be on the alert. With- 
 out any warning, the course of the boat was suddenly 
 changed, and I was aware that we were moving stern 
 foremost. Then we swung around, and I could soon 
 make out that we were going down the little bay. The 
 forest-covered banks narrowed; then the marsh at the 
 end was lighted up, and on its hither edge, knee-deep 
 among the water-lilies, appeared the figure of a yearling 
 buck still in the red. It stood motionless, gazing at the 
 light with a curiosity wholly unmixed with alarm, and 
 at the shot wheeled and fell at the water's edge. ■ We 
 made up our mind to return to camp that night, as it was 
 before midnight. I carried the buck and the torch, and 
 the guide the boat, and the mile walk over the dim trail, 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 213 
 
 occasionally pitching forward across a stump or root, was 
 a thing to be remembered. It was my first deer, and 
 I was very glad to get it; but although only a boy, I had 
 sense enough to realize that it was not an experience 
 worth repeating. The paddler in such a case deserves 
 considerable credit, but the shooter not a particle, even 
 aside from the fact to which I have already alluded, 
 that in too many cases such shooting results in the killing 
 of nursing does. No matter how young a sportsman is, 
 if he has a healthy mind, he will not long take pleasure 
 in any method of hunting in which somebody else shows 
 the skill and does the work so that his share is only nomi- 
 nal. The minute that sport is carried on on these terms 
 it becomes a sham, and a sham is always detrimental to 
 all who take part in it. 
 
 Whitetail are comparatively easily killed with 
 hounds, and there are very many places where this is 
 almost the only way they can be killed at all. Formerly 
 in the Adirondacks this method of hunting was carried 
 on under circumstances which rendered those who took 
 part in it objects of deserved contempt. The sportsman 
 stood in a boat while his guides put out one or two hounds 
 in the chosen forest side. After a longer or shorter run 
 the deer took to the water; for whitetail are excellent 
 swimmers, and when pursued by hounds try to shake 
 them off by wading up or down stream or by swimming 
 across a pond, and, if tired, come to bay in some pool 
 or rapid. Once the unfortunate deer was in the water, 
 the guide rowed the boat after it. If it was yet early in 
 the season, and the deer was still in the red summer 
 
214 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 coat, it would sink when shot, and therefore the guide 
 would usually take hold of its tail before the would-be 
 Nimrod butchered it. If the deer was in the blue, the 
 carcass would float, so it was not necessary to do anything 
 quite so palpably absurd. But such sport, so far as the 
 man who did the shooting was concerned, had not one 
 redeeming feature. The use of hounds has now been 
 prohibited by law. 
 
 In regions where there are no lakes, and where the 
 woods are thick, the shooters are stationed at runways 
 by which it is supposed the deer may pass when the 
 hounds are after them. Under such circumstances the 
 man has to show the skill requisite to hit the running 
 quarry, and if he uses the rifle, this means that he must 
 possess a certain amount of address in handling the weap- 
 on. But no other quality is called for, and so even this 
 method, though often the only possible one (and it may 
 be necessary to return to it in the Adirondacks) , can never 
 rank high in the eyes of men who properly appreciate 
 what big game hunting should be. It is the usual method 
 of killing deer on Long Island, during the three or four 
 days of each year when they can be legally hunted. The 
 deer are found along the south and centre of the eastern 
 half of the island ; they were nearly exterminated a dozen 
 years ago, but under good laws they have recently in- 
 creased greatly. The extensive grounds of the various 
 sportsmen's clubs, and the forests of scrub-oak in the 
 sparsely settled inland region, give them good harbors 
 and sanctuaries. On the days when it is legal to shoot 
 them, hundreds of hunters turn out from the neighbor- 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 215 
 
 hood, and indeed from all the island and from New York. 
 On such a day it is almost impossible to get any work 
 done ; for the sport is most democratic, and is shared by 
 everybody. The hunters choose their position before 
 dawn, lying in lines wherever deer are likely to pass, 
 while the hounds are turned into every patch of thick 
 cover. A most lively day follows, the fusillade being 
 terrific ; some men are invariably shot, and a goodly num- 
 ber of deer are killed, mostly by wily old hunters who 
 kill ducks and quail for a living in the fall. 
 
 When the horse is used together with the hounds the 
 conditions are changed. To ride a horse over rough 
 country after game always implies hardihood and good 
 horsemanship, and therefore makes the sport a worthy 
 one. In very open country — in such country, for instance, 
 as the whitetail formerly frequented both in Texas and 
 the Indian Territory — the horseman could ride at the 
 tail of the pack until the deer was fairly run down. But 
 nowadays I know of no place where this is possible, for 
 the whitetail's haunts are such as to make it impracti- 
 cable for any rider to keep directly behind the hounds. 
 What he must do is to try to cut the game off by riding 
 from point to point. He then leaps off the horse and 
 watches his chance for a shot. This is the way in which 
 Mr. Mcllhenny has done most of his deer-hunting, in 
 the neighborhood of his Louisiana plantation. 
 
 Around my ranch I very rarely tried to still-hunt 
 whitetail, because it was always easier to get mule-deer 
 or prongbuck, if I had time to go off for an all-day's 
 hunt. Occasionally, however, we would have at the 
 
2i6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 ranch hounds, usually of the old black-and-tan Southern 
 type, and then if we needed meat, and there was not time 
 for a hunt back in the hills, we would turn out and hunt 
 one or two of the river bottoms with these hounds. If 
 I rode off to the prairies or the hills I went alone, but 
 if the quarry was a whitetail, our chance of success de- 
 pended upon our having a sufficient number of guns to 
 watch the different passes and runways. Accordingly, 
 my own share of the chase was usually limited to the 
 fun of listening to the hounds, and of galloping at head- 
 long speed from one point where I thought the deer 
 would not pass to some other, which, as a matter of fact, 
 it did not pass either. The redeeming feature of the 
 situation was that if I did get a shot, I almost always got 
 my deer. Under ordinary circumstances to merely 
 wound a deer is worse than not hitting it; but when there 
 are hounds along they are certain to bring the wounded 
 animal to bay, and so on these hunts we usually got 
 venison. 
 
 Of course, I occasionally got a whitetail when I 
 was alone, whether with the hounds or without them. 
 There were whitetail on the very bottom on which the 
 ranch house stood, as well as on the bottom opposite, 
 and on those to the right and left up and down stream. 
 Occasionally I have taken the hounds out alone, and 
 then as they chevied the whitetail around the bottom, 
 have endeavored by rapid running on foot or on horse- 
 back to get to some place from which I could obtain 
 a shot. The deer knew perfectly well that the hounds 
 could not overtake them, and they would usually do a 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 217 
 
 great deal of sneaking round and round through the un- 
 derbrush and cottonwoods before they finally made up 
 their minds to leave the bottom. On one occasion a buck 
 came sneaking down a game trail through the buck brush 
 where I stood, going so low that I could just see the 
 tips of his antlers, and though I made desperate efforts 
 I was not able to get into a position from which I could 
 obtain a shot. On another occasion, while I was looking 
 intently into a wood through which I was certain a deer 
 would pass, it deliberately took to the open ground be- 
 hind me, and I did not see it until it was just vanishing. 
 Normally, the end of my efforts was that the deer went 
 off and the hounds disappeared after it, not to return 
 for six or eight hours. Once or twice things favored 
 me ; I happened to take the right turn or go in the right 
 direction, and the deer happened to blunder past me ; and 
 then I returned with venison for supper. Two or three 
 times I shot deer about nightfall or at dawn, in the im- 
 mediate neighborhood of the ranch, obtaining them by 
 sneaking as noiselessly as possible along the cattle trails 
 through the brush and timber, or by slipping along the 
 edge of the river bank. Several times I saw deer while 
 I was sitting on the piazza or on the doorstep of the 
 ranch, and on one occasion I stepped back into the house, 
 got the rifle, and dropped the animal from where I stood. 
 On yet other occasions I obtained whitetail which 
 lived not on the river bottoms but among the big patches 
 of brush and timber in the larger creeks. When they 
 were found in such country I hunted them very much 
 as I hunted the mule-deer, and usually shot one when 
 
21 8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 I was expecting as much to see a mule-deer as a white- 
 tail. When the game was plentiful I would often stay 
 on my horse until the moment of obtaining the shot, espe- 
 cially if it was in the early morning or late evening. My 
 method then was to ride slowly and quietly down the 
 winding valleys and across the spurs, hugging the bank, 
 so that, if deer were feeding in the open, I would get 
 close up before either of us saw the other. Sometimes 
 the deer would halt for a moment when it saw me, and 
 sometimes it would bound instantly away. In either case 
 my chance lay in the speed with which I could jump 
 off the horse and take my shot. Even in favorable locali- 
 ties this method was of less avail with whitetail than 
 mule-deer, because the former were so much more apt 
 to skulk. 
 
 As soon as game became less plentiful my hunting had 
 to be done on foot. My object was to be on the hunting- 
 ground by dawn, or else to stay out there until it grew 
 too dark to see the sights of my rifle. Often all I did 
 was to keep moving as quietly as possible through likely 
 ground, ever on the alert for the least trace of game; 
 sometimes I would select a lookout and carefully scan 
 a likely country to see if I could not detect something 
 moving. On one occasion I obtained an old whitetail 
 buck by the simple exercise of patience. I had twice 
 found him in a broad basin, composed of several coulees, 
 all running down to form the head of a big creek, and 
 all of them well timbered. He dodged me on both occa- 
 sions, and I made up my mind that I would spend a 
 whole day in watching for him from a little natural 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 219 
 
 ambush of sage-bush and cedar on a high point which 
 overlooked the entire basin. I crept up to my ambush 
 with the utmost caution early in the morning, and there 
 I spent the entire day, with my lunch and a water-bottle, 
 continually scanning the whole region most carefully 
 with the glasses. The day passed less monotonously than 
 it sounds, for every now and then I would catch a glimpse 
 of wild life; once a fox, once a coyote, and once a badger; 
 while the little chipmunks had a fine time playing all 
 around me. At last, about mid-afternoon, I suddenly saw 
 the buck come quietly out of the dense thicket in which 
 he had made his midday bed, and deliberately walk up 
 a hillside and lie down in a thin clump of ash where the 
 sun could get at him — for it was in September, just be- 
 fore the rut began. There was no chance of stalking 
 him in the place he had chosen, and all I could do was 
 to wait. It was nearly sunset before he moved again, 
 except that I occasionally saw him turn his head. Then 
 he got up, and after carefully scrutinizing all the neigh- 
 borhood, moved down into a patch of fairly thick brush, 
 where I could see him standing and occasionally feeding, 
 all the time moving slowly up the valley. I now slipped 
 most cautiously back and trotted nearly a mile until I 
 could come up behind one of the ridges bounding the 
 valley in which he was. The wind had dropped and it 
 was almost absolutely still when I crawled flat on my face 
 to the crest, my hat in my left hand, my rifle in my 
 right. There was a big sage-bush conveniently near, and 
 under this I peered. There was a good deal of brush in 
 the valley below, and if I had not known that the buck 
 
220 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 was there, I would never have discovered him. As it 
 was, I watched for a quarter of an hour, and had about 
 made up my mind that he must have gone somewhere 
 else, when a slight movement nearly below me attracted 
 my attention, and I caught a glimpse of him nearly three 
 hundred yards ofif, moving quietly along by the side of 
 a little dry watercourse which was right in the middle 
 of the brush. I waited until he was well past, and then 
 again slipped back with the utmost care, and ran on until 
 I was nearly opposite the head of the coulee, when I again 
 approached the ridge-line. Here there was no sage-bush, 
 only tufts of tall grass, which were stirring in the little 
 breeze which had just sprung up, fortunately in the 
 right direction. Taking advantage of a slight inequality 
 in the soil, I managed to get behind one of these tufts, 
 and almost immediately saw the buck. Toward the head 
 of the coulee the brush had become scanty and low, and 
 he was now walking straight forward, evidently keeping 
 a sharp lookout. The sun had just set. His course took 
 him past me at a distance of eighty yards. When di- 
 rectly opposite I raised myself on my elbows, drawing 
 up the rifle, which I had shoved ahead of me. The 
 movement of course caught his eye at once; he halted 
 for one second to look around and see what it was, and 
 during that second I pulled the trigger. Away he went, 
 his white flag switching desperately, and though he gal- 
 loped over the hill, I felt he was mine. However, when 
 I got to the top of the rise over which he had gone, 
 I could not see him, and as there was a deep though 
 narrow coulee filled with brush on the other side, I had 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 221 
 
 a very ugly feeling that I might have lost him, in spite 
 of the quantity of blood he had left along his trail, It 
 was getting dark, and I plunged quickly into the coulee. 
 Usually a wounded deer should not be followed until it 
 has had time to grow stiff, but this was just one of the 
 cases where the rule would have worked badly; in the 
 first place, because darkness was coming on, and in the 
 next place, because the animal was certain to die shortly, 
 and all that I wanted was to see where he was. I fol- 
 lowed his trail into the coulee, and expected to find that 
 he had turned down it, but a hurried examination in the 
 fading light showed me that he had taken the opposite 
 course, and I scrambled hastily out on the other side, 
 and trotted along, staring into the brush, and now and 
 then shouting or throwing in a clod of earth. When 
 nearly at the head there was a crackling in the brush, 
 and out burst the wounded buck. He disappeared be- 
 hind a clump of elms, but he had a hard hill to go up, 
 and the effort was too much for him. When I next saw 
 him he had halted, and before I could fire again down 
 he came. 
 
 On another occasion I spied a whole herd of white- 
 tail feeding in a natural meadow, right out in the open, 
 in mid-afternoon, and was able to get up so close that 
 when I finally shot a yearling buck (which was one of 
 the deer farthest away from me, there being no big buck 
 in the outfit), the remaining deer, all does and fawns, 
 scattered in every direction, some galloping right past 
 me in their panic. Once or twice I was able to perform 
 a feat of which I had read, but in which I scarcely 
 
222 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 believed. This was, to creep up to a deer while feed- 
 ing in the open, by watching when it shook its tail, and 
 then remaining motionless. I cannot say whether the 
 habit is a universal one, but on two occasions at least 
 I was able thus to creep up to the feeding deer, because 
 before lifting its head it invariably shook its tail, thereby 
 warning me to stay without moving until it had lifted 
 its head, scrutinized the landscape, and again lowered 
 its head to graze. The eyesight of the whitetail, as com- 
 pared with that of the pronghorn antelope, is poor. It 
 notes whatever is in motion, but it seems unable to dis- 
 tinguish clearly anything that is not in motion. On the 
 occasions in question no antelope that I have ever seen 
 would have failed to notice me at once and to take alarm. 
 But the whitetail, although it scrutinized me narrowly, 
 while I lay motionless with my head toward it, seemed 
 in each case to think that I must be harmless, and after 
 a while it would go on feeding. In one instance the 
 animal fed over a ridge and walked off before I could 
 get a shot; in the other instance I killed it. 
 
 In 1894, on the last day I spent at the ranch, and 
 with the last bullet I fired from my rifle, I killed a fine 
 whitetail buck. I left the ranch house early in the after- 
 noon on my favorite pony, Muley, my foreman, Sylvane 
 Ferris, riding with me. We forded the shallow river 
 and rode up a long winding coulee, with belts of tim- 
 ber running down its bottom. After going a couple of 
 miles, by sheer good luck we stumbled on three white- 
 tail — a buck, a doe and a fawn. When we saw them 
 they were trying to sneak off, and immediately my fore- 
 
THE WHITETAIL DEER 
 
 223 
 
 man galloped toward one end of the belt of timber in 
 which they were, and started to ride down through it, 
 while I ran Muley to the other end to intercept them. 
 They were, of course, quite likely to break off to one 
 side ; but this happened to be one of the occasions when 
 everything went right. When I reached the spot from 
 which I covered the exits from the timber, I leaped off, 
 and immediately afterward heard a shout from my fore- 
 man that told me the deer were on foot. Muley was 
 a pet horse, and enjoyed immensely the gallop after 
 game I but his nerves invariably failed him at the shot. 
 On this occasion he stood snorting beside me, and finally, 
 as the deer came in sight, away he tore- — only to go about 
 200 yards, however, and stand and watch us, snorting, 
 with his ears pricked forward until, when I needed him, 
 I went for him. At the moment, however, I paid no heed 
 to Muley, for a cracking in the brush told me the game 
 was close, and I caught the shadowy outlines of the doe 
 and the fawn as they scudded through the timber. By 
 good luck, the buck, evidently flurried, came right on the 
 edge of the woods next to me, and as he passed, running 
 like a quarter-horse, I held well ahead of him and pulled 
 trigger. The bullet broke his neck and down he went — 
 a fine fellow with a handsome ten-point head, and fat 
 as a prize sheep; for it was just before the rut. Then 
 we rode home, and I sat in a rocking-chair on the ranch- 
 house veranda, looking across the wide, sandy river bed 
 at the strangely shaped buttes and the groves of shimmer- 
 ing cottonwoods until the sun went down and the frosty 
 air bade me go in. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE MULE-DEER, OR ROCKY MOUNTAIN BLACKTAIL 
 
 This is the largest and finest of our three smaller deer. 
 Throughout its range it is known as the blacktail deer, 
 and it has as good a historic claim to the title as its Pacific 
 coast kinsman, the coast or true blacktail. In writing 
 purely of this species, it seems like pedantry to call it 
 by its book name of mule-deer, a name which conveys 
 little or no meaning to the people who live in its haunts 
 and who hunt it; but it is certainly very confusing to 
 know two distinct types of deer by one name, and as both 
 the Rocky Mountain blacktail and Coast blacktail are 
 thus known, and as the former is occasionally known as 
 mule-deer, I shall, for convenience' sake, speak of it un- 
 der this name — a name given it because of its great ears, 
 which rather detract from its otherwise very handsome 
 appearance. 
 
 The mule-deer is a striking and beautiful animal. As 
 is the case with our other species, it varies greatly in 
 size, but is on the average heavier than either the white- 
 tail or the true blacktail. The horns also average longer 
 and heavier, and in exceptional heads are really note- 
 worthy trophies. Ordinarily a full-grown buck has a 
 head of ten distinct and well-developed points, eight of 
 which consist of the bifurcations of the two main prongs 
 
 into which each antler divides, while in addition there 
 
 224 
 
THE MULE-DEER 225 
 
 are two shorter basal or frontal points. But the latter 
 are very irregular, being sometimes missing; while some- 
 times there are two or three of them on each antler. 
 When missing it usually means that the antlers are of 
 young animals that have not attained their full growth. 
 A yearling will sometimes have merely a pair of spikes, 
 and sometimes each spike will be bifurcated so as to make 
 two points. A two-year-old may develop antlers which, 
 though small, possess the normal four points. Occasion- 
 ally, where unusually big heads are developed, there are 
 a number of extra points. If these are due to deformity, 
 they simply take away from the beauty of the head; but 
 where they are symmetrical, while at the same time the 
 antlers are massive, they add greatly to the beauty. All 
 the handsomest and largest heads show this symmetri- 
 cal development of extra points. It is rather hard to 
 lay down a hard-and-fast rule for counting them. The 
 largest and finest antlers are usually rough, and it is 
 not easy to say when a particular point in roughness has 
 developed so that it may legitimately be called a prong. 
 The largest head I ever got to my own rifle had twenty- 
 eight points, symmetrically arranged, the antlers being 
 rough and very massive as well as very long. The buck 
 was an immense fellow, but no bigger than other bucks 
 I have shot which possessed ordinary heads. 
 
 The mule-deer is found from the rough country 
 which begins along the eastern edges of the great plains, 
 across the Rocky Mountains to the eastern slopes of the 
 coast ranges, and into southern California. It extends 
 into Canada on the north and Mexico on the south. On 
 
226 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the west it touches, and here and there crosses, the boun- 
 daries of the Coast blacktail. The whitetail is found in 
 places throughout its habitat from east to west and from 
 north to south. But there are great regions in this ter- 
 ritory which are peculiarly fitted for the mule-deer, but 
 in which the whitetail is never found, as the habits of 
 the two are entirely different. In the mountains of west- 
 ern Colorado and Wyoming, for instance, the mule-deer 
 swarms, but the whole region is unfit for the whitetail, 
 which is accordingly only found in a very few narrowly 
 restricted localities. 
 
 The mule-deer does not hold its own as well as the 
 whitetail in the presence of man, but it is by no means 
 as quickly exterminated as the wapiti. The outside 
 limits of its range have not shrunk materially in the cen- 
 tury during which it has been known to white hunters. 
 It was never found until the fertile, moist country of the 
 Mississippi Valley was passed and the dry plains region 
 to the west of it reached, and it still exists in some num- 
 bers here and there in this country, as, for instance, in 
 the Bad Lands along the Little Missouri, and in the 
 Black Hills. But although its limits of distribution have 
 not very sensibly diminished, there are large portions of 
 the range within these limits from which it has practically 
 vanished, and in most places its numbers have been woe- 
 fully thinned. It holds its own best among the more in- 
 accessible mountain masses of the Rockies, and from 
 Chihuahua to Alberta there are tracts where it is still 
 abundant. Yet even in these places the numbers are di- 
 minishing, and this process can be arrested only by better 
 
THE MULE-DEER 227 
 
 laws, and above all, by a better administration of the law. 
 The national Government could do much by establishing 
 its forest reserves as game reserves, and putting on a suf- 
 ficient number of forest rangers who should be empow- 
 ered to prevent all hunting on the reserves. The State 
 governments can do still more. Colorado has good laws, 
 but they are not well enforced. The easy method of 
 accounting for this fact is to say that it is due to the 
 politicians ; but in reality the politicians merely represent 
 the wishes, or more commonly the indifference, of the 
 people. As long as the good citizens of a State are indif- 
 ferent to game protection, or take but a tepid interest 
 in it, the politicians, through their agents, will leave the 
 game laws unenforced. But if the people of Colorado, 
 Wyoming, and Montana come to feel the genuine interest 
 in the enforcement of these laws that the people of Maine 
 and Vermont have grown to take during the past twenty 
 years, that the people of Montana and Wyoming who 
 dwell alongside the Yellowstone Park are already taking 
 — then not only will the mule-deer cease to diminish, but 
 it will positively increase. It is a mistake to suppose that 
 such a change would only be to the advantage of well- 
 to-do sportsmen. Men who are interested in hunting for 
 hunting's sake, men who come from the great cities re- 
 mote from the mountains in order to get three or four 
 weeks' healthy, manly holiday, would undoubtedly be 
 benefited ; but the greatest benefit would be to the peo- 
 ple of the localities, of the neighborhoods round about. 
 The presence of the game would attract outsiders who 
 would .leave in the country money, or its equivalent. 
 
228 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 which would many times surpass in value the game they 
 actually killed; and furthermore, the preservation of the 
 game would mean that the ranchmen and grangers who 
 live near its haunts would have in perpetuity the chance 
 of following the pleasantest and healthiest of all out-of- 
 door pastimes; whereas, if through their short-sighted- 
 ness they destroy, or permit to be destroyed, the game, 
 they are themselves responsible for the fact that their 
 children and children's children will find themselves for- 
 ever debarred from a pursuit which must under such 
 circumstances become the amusement only of the very 
 rich. If we are really alive to our opportunities under 
 our democratic social and political system, we can keep 
 for ourselves — and by " ourselves " I mean the enormous 
 bulk of men whose means range from moderate to very 
 small — ample opportunity for the enjoyment of hunting 
 and shooting, of vigorous and blood-stirring out-of-doors 
 sport. If we fail to take advantage of our possibilities, 
 if we fail to pass, in the interest of all, wise game laws, 
 and to see that these game laws are properly enforced, 
 we shall then have to thank ourselves if in the future the 
 game is only found in the game preserves of the wealthy; 
 and under such circumstances only these same wealthy 
 people will have the chance to hunt it. 
 
 The mule-deer differs widely from the whitetail in 
 its habits, and especially in its gait, and in the kind of 
 country which it frequents. Although in many parts of 
 its range it is found side by side with its whitetail cousin, 
 the two do not actually associate together, and their pro- 
 pinquity is due simply to the fact, that the river bottoms 
 
THE MULE-DEER 229 
 
 being a favorite haunt of the whitetail, long tongues of 
 the distribution area of this species are thrust into the 
 domain of its bolder, less stealthy and less crafty kinsman. 
 Throughout the plains country the whitetail is the deer of 
 the river bottoms, where the rank growth gives it secure 
 hiding-places, as well as ample food. The mule-deer, on 
 the contrary, never comes down into the dense growths 
 of the river bottoms. Throughout the plains country 
 it is the deer of the broken Bad Lands which fringe these 
 river bottoms on either side, and of the rough ravines 
 which wind their way through the Bad Lands to the edge 
 of the prairie country which lies back of them. The 
 broken hills, their gorges filled with patches of ash, buck 
 brush, cedar, and dwarf pine, form a country in which 
 the mule-deer revels. The whitetail will, at times, wan- 
 der far out on the prairies where the grass is tall and 
 rank; but it is not nearly so bold or fond of the open 
 as the mule-deer. The latter is frequently found in hilly 
 country where the covering is so scanty that the animal 
 must be perpetually on the watch, as if it were a bighorn 
 or prongbuck, in order to spy its foes at a distance and 
 escape before they can come near; whereas the whitetail 
 usually seeks to elude observation by hiding— by its 
 crouching, stealthy habits. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that with the mule- 
 deer, as with all other species of animals, there is a wide 
 variability in habits under different conditions. This is 
 often forgotten even by trained naturalists, who accept 
 the observations made in one locality as if they applied 
 throughout the range of the species. Thus in the gen- 
 
230 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 erally good account of the habits of this species in Mr. 
 Lydeker's book on the " Deer of All Lands " it is asserted 
 that mule-deer never dwell permanently in the forest, and 
 feed almost exclusively on grass. The first statement is 
 entirely, the second only partly, true of the mule-deer of 
 the plains from the Little Missouri westward to the head- 
 waters of the Platte, the Yellowstone, and the Big Horn ; 
 but there are large parts of the Rockies in which neither 
 statement applies at all. In the course of several hunt- 
 ing trips among the densely wooded mountains of western 
 Montana, along the water-shed separating the streams 
 that flow into Clarke's Fork of the Columbia from those 
 that ultimately empty into Kootenay Lake, I found the 
 mule-deer plentiful in many places where practically the 
 whole country was covered by dense forest, and where 
 the opportunities for grazing were small indeed, as we 
 found to our cost in connection with our pack-train. In 
 this region the mule-deer lived the entire time among 
 the timber, and subsisted for the most part on browse. 
 Occasionally they would find an open glade and graze; 
 but the stomachs of those killed contained not grass, but 
 blueberries and the leaves and delicate tips of bushes. I 
 was not in this country in winter, but it was evident that 
 even at that season the deer must spend their time in the 
 thick timber. There was no chance for them to go above 
 the timber line, because the mountains were densely 
 wooded to their summits, and the white goats of the local- 
 ity also lived permanently in the timber.' It was far 
 
 ' I call particular attention to this fact concerning the white goat, as certain 
 recent writers, including Mr. Madison Grant, have erroneously denied it. 
 
THE MULE-DEER 231 
 
 harder to get the mule-deer than it was to get the white 
 goats, for the latter were infinitely more conspicuous, 
 were slower in their movements, and bolder and less shy. 
 Almost the only way we succeeded in killing the deer 
 was by finding one of their well-trodden paths and lying 
 in wait beside it very early in the morning or quite late 
 in the afternoon. The season was August and September, 
 and the deer were astir long before sunset. They usually, 
 but not always, lay high up on the mountain-sides, and 
 while they sometimes wandered to and fro browsing on 
 the mountains, they often came down to feed in the val- 
 leys, where the berries were thicker. Their paths were 
 well beaten, although, like all game trails, after being 
 as plainly marked as a pony track for a quarter of a 
 mile or so, they would suddenly grow faint and vanish. 
 The paths ran nearly straight up and down hill, and even 
 when entirely undisturbed, the deer often came down 
 them at a great rate, bouncing along in a way that showed 
 that they had no fear of developing the sprung knees 
 which we should fear for a domestic animal which habit- 
 ually tried the same experiment. 
 
 In other habits also the deer vary widely in different 
 localities. For instance, there is an absolute contrast as 
 regards their migratory habits between the mule-deer 
 which live in the Bad Lands along the Little Missouri, 
 and those which live in northwestern Colorado; and this 
 difference is characteristic generally of the deer which 
 in the summer dwell in the high mountains, as contrasted 
 with those which bear and rear their young in the low, 
 broken hill-country. Along the Little Missouri there 
 
232 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 was no regular or clearly defined migration of the mule- 
 deer in a mass. Some individuals, or groups of individ- 
 uals, shifted their quarters for a few miles, so that in the 
 spring, for instance, a particular district of a few square 
 miles, in which they had been abundant before, might 
 be wholly without them. But there were other districts, 
 which happened to afford at all times sufficient food and 
 shelter, in which they were to be found the year round ; 
 and the animals did not band and migrate as the prong- 
 bucks did in the same region. In the immediate neigh- 
 borhood of my ranch there were groups of high hills 
 containing springs of water, good grass, and an abun- 
 dance of cedar, ash, and all kinds of brush in which the 
 mule-deer were permanent residents. There were big 
 dry creeks, with well-wooded bottoms, lying among rug- 
 ged hills, in which I have found whitetail and mule- deer 
 literally within a stone's throw of one another. I once 
 started from two adjoining pockets in this particular 
 creek two does, each with a fawn, one being a mule-deer 
 and the other a whitetail. On another occasion, on an 
 early spring afternoon, just before the fawns were born, 
 I came upon a herd of twenty whitetails, does, and young 
 of the preceding year, grazing greedily on the young 
 grass ; and half a mile up the creek, in an almost exactly 
 similar locality, I came upon just such a herd of mule- 
 deer. In each case the animals were so absorbed in the 
 feasting, which was to make up for their winter priva- 
 tions, that I was able to stalk to within fifty yards, though 
 of course I did not shoot. 
 
 In northwestern Colorado the conditions are entirely 
 
THE MULE-DEER 233 
 
 dififerent. Throughout this region there are no whitetail 
 and never have been, although in the winter range of 
 the mule-deer there are a few prongbuck; and the wapiti 
 once abounded. The mule-deer are still plentiful. They 
 make a complete migration summer and winter, so that 
 in neither season is a single individual to be found in 
 the haunts they frequent during the other season. In 
 the summer they live and bring forth their young high up 
 in the main chain of the mountains, in a beautiful country 
 of northern forest growth, dotted with trout-filled brooks 
 and clear lakes. The snowfall is so deep in these wooded 
 mountains that the deer would run great risk of perish- 
 ing if they stayed therein, and indeed could only winter 
 there at all in very small numbers. Accordingly, when 
 the storms begin in the fall, usually about the first of 
 October, just before the rut, the deer assemble in bands 
 and move west and south to the lower, drier country, 
 where the rugged hills are here and there clothed with 
 an open growth of pinyon and cedar, instead of the tall 
 spruces and pines of the summer range. The migrating 
 bands follow one another along definite trails over moun- 
 tains, through passes and valleys, and across streams ; and 
 their winter range swarms with them a few days after 
 the forerunners have put in their appearance in what has 
 been, during the summer, an absolutely deerless country. 
 In January and February, 1901, I spent five weeks 
 north of the White River, in northwestern Colorado. It 
 was in the heart of the wintering ground of the great 
 Colorado mule-deer herd. Forty miles away to the east, 
 extending north, lay the high mountains in which these 
 
234 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 deer had spent the summer. The winter range, in which 
 I was at the time hunting cougars, is a region of com- 
 paratively light snowfall, though the cold is bitter. On 
 several occasions during my stay the thermometer went 
 down to twenty degrees below zero. The hills, or low 
 mountains, for it was difficult to know which to call 
 them, were steep and broken, and separated by narrow 
 fiats covered with sage-brush. The ordinary trees were 
 the pinyon and cedar, which were scattered in rather 
 open groves over the mountain-sides and the spurs be- 
 tween the ravines. There were also patches of quaking 
 asp, scrub oak, and brush. The entire country was thinly 
 covered with ranches, and there were huge pastures en- 
 closed by wire fences. I have never seen the mule-deer 
 so numerous anywhere as they were in this country at 
 this time; although in 1883, on the Little Missouri, they 
 were almost as plentiful. There was not a day we did 
 not see scores, and on some days we saw hundreds. Fre- 
 quently they were found in small parties of two or three, 
 or a dozen individuals, but on occasions we saw bands 
 of thirty or forty. Only rarely were they found singly. 
 The fawns were of course well grown, being eight or 
 nine months old, and long out of the spotted coat. They 
 were still accompanying their mothers. Ordinarily a 
 herd would consist of does, fawns, and yearlings, the 
 latter carrying their first antlers. But it was not pos- 
 sible to lay down a universal rule. Again and again 
 I saw herds in which there were one or two full-grown 
 bucks associating with the females and younger deer. 
 At other times we came across small bands of full- 
 
THE MULE-DEER 235 
 
 grown bucks by themselves, and occasionally a solitary 
 buck. Considering the extent to which these deer must 
 have been persecuted, I did not think them shy. We 
 were hunting on horseback, and had hounds with us, so 
 we made no especial attempt to avoid noise. Yet very 
 frequently we would come close on the deer before they 
 took alarm; and even when alarmed they would some- 
 times trot slowly off, halting and looking back. On one 
 occasion, in some bad lands, we came upon four bucks 
 which had been sunning themselves on the face of a clay 
 wall. They jumped up and went off one at a time, very 
 slowly, passing diagonally by us, certainly not over 
 seventy yards off. All four could have been shot with- 
 out effort, and as they had fine antlers I should certainly 
 have killed one, had it been the open season. 
 
 When we came on these Colorado mule-deer sud- 
 denly, they generally behaved exactly as their brethren 
 used to in the old days on the Little Missouri; that is, 
 they would run off at a good speed for a hundred yards 
 or so, then slow up, halt, gaze inquisitively at us for 
 some seconds, and again take to flight. While the sun 
 was strong they liked to lie out in the low brush on 
 slopes where they would get the full benefit of the heat. 
 During the heavy snowstorms they usually retreated into 
 some ravine where the trees grew thicker than usual, not 
 stirring until the weight of the storm was over. Most 
 of the night, especially if it was moonlight, they fed; 
 but they were not at all regular about this. I frequently 
 saw them standing up and grazing, or more rarely brows- 
 ing, in the middle of the day, and in the late afternoon 
 
236 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 they often came down to graze on the flats within view 
 of the different ranch-houses where I happened to stop. 
 The hours for feeding and resting, however, always vary 
 accordingly as the deer are or are not persecuted. In 
 wild localities I have again and again found these deer 
 grazing at all hours of the day, and coming to water 
 at high noon ; whereas, where they have been much per- 
 secuted, they only begin to feed after dusk, and come to 
 water after dark. Of course during this winter weather 
 they could get no water, snow supplying its place. 
 
 I was immensely interested with the way they got 
 through the wire fences. A mule-deer is a great jumper ; 
 I have known them to clear with ease high timber corral' 
 fences surrounding hayricks. If the animals had chosen, 
 they could have jumped any of the wire fences I saw; 
 yet never in a single instance did I see one of them so 
 jump a fence, nor did I ever find in the tell-tale snow 
 tracks which indicated their having done so. They paid 
 no heed whatever to the fences, so far as I could see, and 
 went through them at will ; but they always got between 
 the wires, or went under the lowest wire. The dexterity 
 with which they did this was extraordinary. When 
 alarmed they would run full speed toward a wire fence, 
 would pass through it, often hardly altering their stride, 
 and never making any marks in the snow which looked 
 as though they had crawled. Twice I saw bands thus 
 go through a wire fence, once at speed, the other time 
 when they were not alarmed. On both occasions they 
 were too far off to allow me to see exactly their mode 
 of procedure, but on examining the snow where they had 
 
THE MULE-DEER 237 
 
 passed, there was not the slightest mark of their bodies, 
 and the alteration in their gait, as shown by the footprints, 
 was hardly perceptible. In one instance, however, where 
 I scared a young buck which ran over a hill and through 
 a wire fence on the other side, I found one of his antlers 
 lying beside the fence, it having evidently been knocked 
 ofif by the wire. Their antlers were getting very loose, 
 and toward the end of our stay they had begun to shed 
 them. 
 
 The deer were, preyed on by many foes. Sportsmen 
 and hide-hunters had been busy during the fall migra- 
 tions, and the ranchmen of the neighborhood were shoot- 
 ing them occasionally for food, even when we were 
 out there. The cougars at this season were preying upon 
 them practically to the exclusion of everything else. We 
 came upon one large fawn which had been killed by a 
 bobcat. The gray wolves were also preying upon them. 
 A party of these wolves can sometimes run down even 
 an unwounded blacktail; I have myself known of their 
 performing this feat. Twice on this very hunt we came 
 across the carcasses of blacktail which had thus been 
 killed by wolves, and one of the cow-punchers at a ranch 
 where we were staying came in and reported to us that 
 while riding among the cattle that afternoon he had seen 
 two coyotes run a young mule-deer to a standstill, and 
 they would without doubt have killed it had they not 
 been frightened by his approach. Still the wolf is very 
 much less successful than the cougar in killing these deer, 
 and even the cougar continually fails in his stalks. But 
 the deer were so plentiful that at this time all the cougars 
 
238 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 we killed were very fat, and evidently had no difficulty 
 in getting as much venison as they needed. The wolves 
 were not as well off, and now and then made forays on 
 the young stock of the ranchmen, which at this season 
 the cougar let alone, reserving his attention to them for 
 the summer season when the deer had vanished. 
 
 In the Big Horn Mountains, where I also saw a good 
 deal of the mule-deer, their habits were intermediate 
 between those of the species that dwell on the plains and 
 those that dwell in the densely timbered regions of the 
 Rockies farther to the northwest. In the summer time 
 they lived high up on the plateaus of the Big Horn, some- 
 times feeding in the open glades and sometimes in the 
 pine forests. In the fall they browsed on certain of the 
 bushes almost exclusively. In winter they came down 
 into the low country. South of the Yellowstone Park, 
 where the wapiti swarmed, the mule-deer were not nu- 
 merous. I believe that by choice they prefer rugged, open 
 country, and they certainly care comparatively little for 
 bad weather, as they will often visit bleak, wind-swept 
 ridges in midwinter, as being places where they can best 
 get food at that season, when the snow lies deep in the 
 sheltered places. Nevertheless, many of the species pass 
 their whole life in thick timber. 
 
 My chief opportunities for observing the mule-deer 
 were in the eighties, when I spent much of my time on 
 my ranch on the Little Missouri. Mule-deer were then 
 very plentiful, and I killed more of them than of all 
 other game put together. At that time in the cattle coun- 
 try no ranchman ever thought of killing beef, and if 
 
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THE MULE-DEER 239 
 
 we had fresh meat at all it was ordinarily venison. In 
 the fall we usually tried to kill enough deer to last out the 
 winter. Until the settlers came in, the Little Missouri 
 country was an ideal range for mule-deer, and they fairly 
 swarmed; while elk were also plentiful, and the restless 
 herds of the buffalo surged at intervals through the land. 
 After 1882 and 1883 the buffalo and elk were killed out, 
 the former completely, and the latter practically, and 
 by that time the skin-hunters, and then the ranchers, 
 turned their attention chiefly to the mule-deer. It lived 
 in open country where there was cover for the stalker, 
 and so it was much easier to kill than either the whitetail, 
 which was found in the dense cover of the river bottoms, 
 or the prongbuck, which was found far back from the 
 river, on the flat prairies where there was no cover at 
 all. I have been informed of other localities in which 
 the antelope has disappeared long before the mule-deer, 
 and I believe that in the Rockies the mule-deer has a 
 far better chance of survival than the antelope has on 
 the plains; but on the Little Missouri the antelope con- 
 tinued plentiful long after the mule-deer had become 
 decidedly scarce. In 1886 I think the antelope were 
 fully as abundant as ever they were, while the mule-deer 
 had wofully diminished. In the early nineties there were 
 still regions within thirty or forty miles of my ranch 
 where the antelope were very plentiful — far more so than 
 the mule-deer were at that time. Now they are both 
 scarce along the Little Missouri, and which will outlast 
 the other I cannot say. 
 
 In the old days, as I have already said, it was by no 
 
240 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 means infrequent to see both the whitetail and the mule- 
 deer close together, and when, under such circumstances, 
 they were alarmed, one got a clear idea of the extraor- 
 dinary gait which is the mule-deer's most striking char- 
 acteristic. It trots well, gallops if hard pressed, and is 
 a good climber, though much inferior to the mountain 
 sheep. But its normal gait consists of a series of stiflf- 
 legged bounds, all four feet leaving and striking the 
 ground at the same time. This gait differs more from 
 the gait of bighorn, prongbuck, whitetail, and wapiti 
 than the gaits of these latter animals differ among them- 
 selves. The wapiti, for instance, rarely gallops, but when 
 he does, it is a gallop of the ordinary type. The prong- 
 buck runs with a singularly even gait; whereas the white- 
 tail makes great bounds, some much higher than others. 
 But fundamentally in all cases the action is the same, 
 and has no resemblance to the stiff-legged buck jumping 
 which is the ordinary means of progression of the mule- 
 deer. These jumps carry it not only on the level, but 
 up and down hill at a great speed. It is said to be a tire- 
 some gait for the animal, if hunted for any length of 
 time on the level; but of this I cannot speak with full 
 knowledge. 
 
 Compared to the wapiti, the mule-deer, like our other 
 small deer, is a very silent animal. For a long time I 
 believed it uttered no sound beyond the snort of alarm 
 and the rare bleat of the doe to her fawn ; but one after- 
 noon I heard two bucks grunting or barking at one an- 
 other in a ravine back of the ranch-house, and crept up 
 and shot them. I was still uncertain whether this was 
 
THE MULE-DEER 241 
 
 an indication of a regular habit; but a couple of years 
 later, on a moonlight night just after sunset, I heard a 
 big buck travelling down a ravine and continually bark- 
 ing, evidently as a love challenge. I have been informed 
 by some hunters that the bucks at the time of the rut 
 not infrequently thus grunt and bark; but most hunters 
 are ignorant of this habit; and it is certainly not a com- 
 mon practice. 
 
 The species is not nearly as gregarious as the wapiti 
 or caribou. During the winter the bucks are generally 
 found singly, or in small parties by themselves, although 
 occasionally one will associate with a party of does and of 
 young deer. When in May or June — for the exact time 
 varies with the locality — the doe brings forth her young, 
 she retires to some lonely thicket. Sometimes one and 
 sometimes two fawns are brought forth. They lie very 
 close for the first few days. I have picked them up and 
 handled them without their making the slightest effort to 
 escape, while the mother hung about a few hundred 
 yards off. On one occasion I by accident surprised a 
 doe in the very act of giving birth to two fawns. One 
 had just been born and the other was born as the doe 
 made her first leap away. She ran off with as much 
 speed and unconcern as if nothing whatever had hap- 
 pened. I passed on immediately, lest she should be so 
 frightened as not to come back to the fawns. It has hap- 
 pened that where I have found the newly born fawns I 
 have invariably found the doe to be entirely alone, but 
 her young of the previous year must sometimes at least 
 be in the neighborhood, for a little later I have frequently 
 
242 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 seen the doe and her fawn or fawns, and either one or two 
 young of the previous year, together. Often, however, 
 these young deer will be alone, or associated with an older 
 doe which is barren. The bucks at the same time go to 
 secluded places; sometimes singly, while sometimes an 
 old buck will be accompanied by a younger one, or a 
 couple of old bucks will lie together. They move about 
 as little as possible while their horns are growing, and 
 if a hunter comes by, they will lie far closer than at any 
 other time of the year, squatting in the dense thickets 
 as if they were whitetails. 
 
 When in the Bad Lands of the Western Dakotas the 
 late September breezes grow cold, then the bucks, their 
 horns already clean of velvet which they have thrashed off 
 on the bushes and saplings, feel their necks begin to swell ; 
 and early in October — sometimes not until November — 
 they seek the does. The latter, especially the younger 
 ones, at first flee in frantic haste. As the rut goes on the 
 bucks become ever bolder and more ardent. Not only 
 do they chase the does by night, but also by day. I have 
 sat on the side of a ravine in the Bad Lands at noon 
 and seen a young doe race past me as if followed by a 
 wolf. When she was out of sight a big buck appeared 
 on her trail, following it by scent, also at speed. When 
 he had passed I got up, and the motion frightened a 
 younger buck which was following two or three hundred 
 yards in the rear of the big one. After a while the doe 
 yields, and the buck then accompanies her. If, however, 
 it is early in the season, he may leave her entirely in 
 order to run after another doe. Later in the season he 
 
THE MULE-DEER 243 
 
 will have a better chance of adding the second doe to his 
 harem, or of robbing another buck of the doe or does 
 which he has accumulated, I have often seen merely 
 one doe and one buck together, and I have often seen a 
 single doe which for several days was accompanied by 
 several bucks, one keeping off the others. But generally 
 the biggest bucks collect each for himself several does, 
 yearlings also being allowed in the band. The exact 
 amount of companionship with the does allowed these 
 young bucks depends somewhat upon the temper of the 
 master buck. In books by imperfectly informed writers 
 we often see allusions to the buck as protecting the 
 doe, or even taking care of the fawn, Charles Dudley 
 Warner, for instance, in describing with great skill and 
 pathos an imaginary deer hunt, after portraying the death 
 of the doe, portrays the young fawn as following the buck 
 when the latter comes back to it in the evening.^ As a 
 matter of fact, while the fawn is so young as to be wholly 
 dependent upon the doe, the buck never comes near 
 either. Moreover, during the period when the buck and 
 the doe are together, the buck's attitude is merely that of 
 a brutal, greedy, and selfish tyrant. He will unhesitat- 
 ingly rob the doe of any choice bit of food, and though 
 he will fight to keep her if another buck approaches, the 
 moment that a dangerous foe appears his one thought is 
 for his own preservation. He will not only desert the 
 doe, but if he is an old and cunning buck, he will try his 
 
 • While the situation thus described was an impossible one, the purpose of 
 Mr. Warner's article was excellent, it being intended as a protest against hunt- 
 mg deer while the fawns are young, and agamst killing them in the water. 
 
244 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 best to sacrifice her by diverting the attention of the pur- 
 suer to her and away from him. 
 
 By the end of the rut the old bucks are often ex- 
 hausted, their sides are thin, their necks swollen ; though 
 they are never as gaunt as wapiti bulls at this time. They 
 then rest as much as possible, feeding all the time to put 
 on fat before winter arrives, and rapidly attaining a very 
 high condition. 
 
 Except in dire need no one would kill a deer after 
 the hard weather of winter begins or before the antlers 
 of the buck are full-grown and the fawns are out of the 
 spotted coat. Even in the old days we, who lived in the 
 ranch country, always tried to avoid killing deer in the 
 spring or early summer, though we often shot buck ante- 
 lope at those times. The close season for deer varies in 
 different States, and now there is generally a limit set to 
 the number any one hunter can kill ; for the old days of 
 wasteful plenty are gone forever. 
 
 To my mind there is a peculiar fascination in hunt- 
 ing the mule-deer. By the time the hunting season has 
 arrived the buck is no longer the slinking beast of the 
 thicket, but a bold and yet wary dweller in the up- 
 lands. Frequently he can be found clear of all cover, 
 often at midday, and his habits at this season are, from 
 the hunter's standpoint, rather more like those of the 
 wapiti than of the whitetail ; but each band, though con- 
 tinually shifting its exact position, stays permanently 
 in the same tract of country, whereas wapiti are apt to 
 wander. 
 
 In the old days, when mule-deer were plentiful in 
 
THE MULE-DEER 245 
 
 country through which a horse could go at a fair rate 
 of speed, it was common for the hunter to go on horse- 
 back, and not to dismount save at the moment of the 
 shot. In the early eighties, while on my ranch on the 
 Little Missouri, this was the way in which I usually 
 hunted. When I first established my ranch I often went 
 out, in the fall, after the day's work was over, and killed 
 a deer before dark. If it was in September, I would 
 sometimes start after supper. Later in the year I would 
 take supper when I got back. Under such circumstances 
 my mode of procedure was simple. Deer were plentiful. 
 Every big tangle of hills, every set of grassy coulees wind- 
 ing down to a big creek bottom, was sure to contain them. 
 The time being short, with at most only an hour or two 
 of light, I made no effort to find the tracks of a deer 
 or to spy one afar ofif. I simply rode through the likely 
 places, across the heads of the ravines or down the wind- 
 ing valleys, until I jumped a deer close enough up to give 
 me a shot. The unshod hoofs of the horse made but lit- 
 tle noise as he shuffled along at the regular cow-pony 
 fox trot, and I kept him close into the bank or behind 
 cover, so as to come around each successive point with- 
 out warning. If the ground was broken and rugged, I 
 made no attempt to go fast. If, on the other hand, I 
 struck a smooth ravine with gentle curves, I would often 
 put the pony to a sharp canter or gallop, so as to come 
 quickly on any deer before it could quite make up its 
 mind what course was best to follow. Sooner or later, 
 as I passed a thick clump of young ash or buck brush, 
 or came abruptly around a sharp bend, there would be 
 
246 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 a snort, and then the thud, thud, thud, of four hoofs strik- 
 ing the ground exactly in unison, and away would go a 
 mule-deer with the peculiar bounding motion of its kind. 
 The pony, well accustomed to the work, stopped short, 
 and I was off its back in an instant. If the deer had 
 not made out exactly what I was, it would often show 
 by its gait that it was not yet prepared to run straight 
 out of sight. Under such circumstances I would wait 
 until it stopped and turned round to look back. If it 
 was going very fast, I took the shot running. Once I 
 put up a young buck from some thick brush in the bot- 
 tom of a winding washout. I leaped off the pony, stand- 
 ing within ten yards of the washout. The buck went up 
 a hill on my left, and as he reached the top and paused 
 for a second on the sky-line, I fired. At the shot there 
 was a great scrambling and crashing in the washout be- 
 low me, and another and larger buck came out and tore 
 off in frantic haste. I fired several shots at him, finally 
 bringing him down. Meanwhile, the other buck had 
 disappeared, but there was blood on his trail, and I found 
 him lying down in the next coulee, and finished him. 
 This was not much over a mile from the ranch-house, 
 and after dressing the deer, I put one behind the saddle 
 and one on it, and led the pony home. 
 
 Such hunting, though great fun, does not imply any 
 particular skill either in horsemanship, marksmanship, or 
 plainscraft and knowledge of the animal's habits; and 
 it can of course be followed only where the game is very 
 plentiful. Ordinarily the mule-deer must be killed by 
 long tramping among the hills, skilful stalking, and good 
 
THE MULE-DEER 247 
 
 shooting. The successful hunter should possess good eyes, 
 good wind, and good muscles. He should know how to 
 take cover and how to use his rifle. The work is suf- 
 ficiently rough to test any man's endurance, and yet there 
 is no such severe and intense toil as in following true 
 mountain game, like the bighorn or white goat. As the 
 hunter's one aim is to see the deer before it sees him, 
 he can only use the horse to take him to the hunting- 
 ground. Then he must go through the most likely 
 ground and from every point of vantage scan with mi- 
 nute care the landscape round about, while himself un- 
 seen. If the country is wild and the deer have not been 
 much molested, he will be apt to come across a band 
 that is feeding. Under such circumstances it is easy to 
 see them at once. But if lying down, it is astonishing 
 how the gray of their winter coats fits in with the color 
 of their surroundings. Too often I have looked carefully 
 over a valley with my glasses until, thinking I had 
 searched every nook, I have risen and gone forward, only 
 to see a deer rise and gallop off out of range from some 
 spot which I certainly thought I had examined with all 
 possible precaution. If the hunter is not himself hidden, 
 he will have his labor for his pains. Neither the mule- 
 deer nor the whitetail is by any means as keen-sighted as 
 the pronghorn antelope, and men accustomed chiefly to 
 antelope shooting are quite right in speaking of the sight 
 of deer as poor by comparison. But this is only by com- 
 parison. A motionless object does not attract the deer's 
 gaze as it attracts the telescopic eye of a prongbuck; but 
 any motion is seen at once, and as soon as this has oc- 
 
248 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 curred, the chances of the hunter are usually at an end. 
 On the other hand, from the nature of its haunts the mule- 
 deer usually offers fairly good opportunities for stalking. 
 It is not as big or as valuable as the elk, and therefore 
 it is not as readily seen or as eagerly followed, and in 
 consequence holds its own better. But though the sport 
 it yields calls normally for a greate^ amount of hardihood 
 and endurance in the hunter thanUs the case with the 
 sport yielded by the prongbuck, and especially by the 
 whitetail, yet when existing in like /numbers it is easier 
 to kill than either of these two animals. 
 
 Sometimes in the early fall, when hunting from the 
 ranch, I have spent the night in some likely locality, sleep- 
 ing rolled up in a blanket on the ground so as to be ready 
 to start at the first streak of dawn. On one such occa- 
 sion a couple of mule-deer came to where my horse was 
 picketed just before I got up. I heard them snort or 
 whistle, and very slowly unwrapped myself from the 
 blanket, turned over, and crawled out, rifle in hand. 
 Overhead the stars were paling in the faint gray light, 
 but the ravine in which the deer were was still so black 
 that, watch as I would, I could not see them. I feared to 
 move around lest I might disturb them, but after wig- 
 gling toward a little jutting shoulder I lay still to wait 
 for the light. They went off, however, while it was still 
 too dusk to catch more than their dim and formless out- 
 lines, and though I followed them as rapidly and cau- 
 tiously as possible, I never got a shot at them. On other 
 occasions fortune has favored me, and before the sun rose 
 I have spied some buck leisurely seeking his day bed. 
 

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THE MULE-DEER 249 
 
 and have been able either to waylay him or make a run- 
 ning stalk on him from behind. 
 
 In the old days it was the regular thing with most 
 ranchmen to take a trip in the fall for the purpose of 
 laying in the winter's supply of venison. I frequently 
 took such trips myself, and though occasionally we killed 
 wapiti, bighorn, prongbuck, and whitetail, our ordinary 
 game was the mule-deer. Around my ranch it was not 
 necessary to go very far. A day's journey with the wagon 
 would usually take us to where a week's hunting would 
 enable us to return with a dozen deer or over. If there 
 was need of more, I would repeat the hunt later on. I 
 have several times killed three of these deer in a day, 
 but I do not now recall ever killing a greater number. 
 It is perhaps unnecessary to say that every scrap of flesh 
 was used. 
 
 These hunts were always made late in the fall, usually 
 after the close of the rut. The deer were then banded, 
 and were commonly found in parties of from three or 
 four to a score, although the big bucks might be lying 
 by themselves. The weather was apt to be cold, and the 
 deer evidently liked to sun themselves, so that at mid- 
 day they could be found lying sometimes in thin brush 
 and sometimes boldly out on the face of a cliff or hill. 
 If they were unmolested, they would feed at intervals 
 throughout the day, and not until the bands had been 
 decimated by excessive hunting did they ever spend the 
 hours of daylight in hiding. 
 
 On such a hunt our proceedings were simple. The 
 nights were longer than the days, and therefore we were 
 
2 so AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 away from camp at the first streak of dawn, and might 
 not return until long after darkness. All the time be- 
 tween was spent in climbing and walking through the 
 rugged hills, keeping a sharp lookout for our game. 
 Only too often we were seen before we ourselves saw 
 the quarry, and even when this was not the case the 
 stalks were sometimes failures. Still blank days were not 
 very common. Probably every hunter remembers with 
 pride some particular stalk. I recall now outwitting a 
 big buck which I had seen and failed to get on two suc- 
 cessive days. He was hanging about a knot of hills with 
 brush on their shoulders, and was not only very watchful, 
 but when he lay down always made his bed at the lower 
 end of a brush patch, whence he could see into the valley 
 below, while it was impossible to approach him from 
 above, through the brush, without giving the alarm. On 
 the third day I saw him early in the morning, while he 
 was feeding. He was very watchful, and I made no at- 
 tempt to get near him, simply peeping at him until he 
 finally went into a patch of thin brush and lay down. 
 As I knew what he was I could distinctly make him out. 
 If I had not seen him go in, I certainly never would have 
 imagined that he was a deer, even had my eyes been able 
 to pick him out at all among the gray shadows and small 
 dead tree-tops. Having waited until he was well settled 
 down, I made a very long turn and came up behind him, 
 only to find that the direction of the wind and the slope 
 of the hill rendered it an absolute impossibility to ap- 
 proach him unperceived. After careful study of the 
 ground I abandoned the effort, and returned to my former 
 
THE MULE-DEER 251 
 
 position, having spent several hours of considerable labor 
 in vain. It was now about noon, and I thought I would 
 lie still to see what he would do when he got up, and 
 accordingly I ate my lunch stretched at full length in 
 the long grass which sheltered me from the wind. From 
 time to time I peered cautiously between two stones 
 toward where the buck lay. It was nearly mid-afternoon 
 before he moved. Sometimes mule-deer rise with a sin- 
 gle motion, all four legs unbending like springs, so that 
 the four hoofs touch the ground at once. This old buck, 
 however, got up very slowly, looked about for certainly 
 five minutes, and then came directly down the hill and 
 toward me. When he had nearly reached the bottom of 
 the valley between us he turned to the right and sauntered 
 rapidly down it. I slipped back and trotted as fast as 
 I could without losing my breath along the hither side 
 of the spur which lay between me and the buck. While 
 I was out of sight he had for some reason made up his 
 mind to hurry, and when I was still fifty yards from the 
 end of the spur he came in sight just beyond it, passing 
 at a swinging trot. I dropped on one knee so quickly 
 that for a moment he evidently could not tell what I 
 was — my buckskin shirt and gray slouch-hat fading into 
 the color of the background — and halted, looking sharp- 
 ly around. Before he could break into flight my bullet 
 went through his shoulders. 
 
 Twice I have killed two of these deer at a shot ; once 
 two bucks, and once a doe and a buck. 
 
 It has proved difficult to keep the mule-deer in cap- 
 tivity, even in large private parks or roomy zoological 
 
252 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 gardens. I think this is because hitherto the experiment 
 has been tried east of the Mississippi in an alien habitat. 
 The wapiti and whitetail are species that are at home 
 over most of the United States, East and West, in rank, 
 wet prairies, dense woodland, and dry mountain regions 
 alike ; but the mule-deer has a far more sharply localized 
 distribution. In the Bronx Zoological Gardens, in New 
 York, Mr. Hornaday informs me that he has compara- 
 tively little difficulty in keeping up the stock alike of 
 wapiti and whitetail by breeding — as indeed any visitor 
 can see for himself. The same is true in the game pre- 
 serves in the wilder regions of New York and New Eng- 
 land ; but hitherto the mule-deer has offered an even more 
 difficult problem in captivity than the pronghorn ante- 
 lope. Doubtless the difficulty would be minimized if 
 the effort at domestication were made in the neighbor- 
 hood of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 The true way to preserve the mule-deer, however, 
 as well as our other game, is to establish on the nation's 
 property great nurseries and wintering grounds, such as 
 the Yellowstone Park, and then to secure fair play for 
 the deer outside these grounds by a wisely planned and 
 faithfully executed series of game laws. This is the 
 really democratic method of solving the problem. Oc- 
 casionally even yet some one will assert that the game 
 " belongs to the people, and should be given over to 
 them " — meaning, thereby, that there should be no game 
 laws, and that every man should be at liberty indiscrimi- 
 nately to kill every kind of wild animal, harmless, useless, 
 or noxious, until the day when our woods become wholly 
 
THE MULE-DEER 253 
 
 bereft of all the forms of higher animal life. Such an 
 argument can only be made from the standpoint of those 
 big game dealers in the cities who care nothing for the 
 future, and desire to make money at the present day by 
 a slaughter which in the last analysis only benefits the 
 wealthy people who are able to pay for the game; for 
 once the game has been destroyed, the livelihood of the 
 professional gunner will be taken away. Most emphati- 
 cally wild game not on private property does belong to 
 the people, and the only way in which the people can 
 secure their ownership is by protecting it in the interest 
 of all against the vandal few. As we grow older I think 
 most of us become less keen about that part of the hunt 
 which consists in the killing. I know that as far as I 
 am concerned I have long gone past the stage when the 
 chief end of a hunting trip was the bag. One or two 
 bucks, or enough grouse and trout to keep the camp sup- 
 plied, will furnish all the sport necessary to give zest 
 and point to a trip in the wilderness. When hunters 
 proceed on such a plan they do practically no damage 
 to the game. Those who are not willing to act along these 
 lines of their own free will, should be made to by the 
 State. The people of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, 
 and of the States near by, can do a real service, primarily 
 to themselves, but secondarily to others also, by framing 
 and executing laws which will keep these noble deer as 
 permanent denizens of their lofty mountains and beauti- 
 ful valleys. There are other things much more impor- 
 tant than game laws; but it will be a great mistake to 
 imagine, because until recently in Europe game laws have 
 
254 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 been administered in the selfish interest of one class and 
 against the interest of the people as a whole, that here 
 in this country, and under our institutions, they would 
 not be beneficial to all of our people. So far from game 
 laws being in the interest of the few, they are emphatically 
 in the interest of the many. The very rich man can stock 
 a private game preserve, or journey afar ofif to where 
 game is still plentiful; but it is only where the game 
 is carefully preserved by the State that the man of small 
 means has any chance to enjoy the keen delight of the 
 chase. 
 
 There are many sides to the charm of big game hunt- 
 ing; nor should it be regarded as being without its solid 
 advantages from the standpoint of national character. 
 Always in our modern life, the life of a highly complex 
 industrialism, there is a tendency to softening of fibre. 
 This is true of our enjoyments; and it is no less true of 
 very many of our business occupations. It is not true 
 of such work as railroading, a purely modern develop- 
 ment, nor yet of work like that of those who man the 
 fishing fleets; but it is preeminently true of all occupa- 
 tions which cause men to lead sedentary lives in great 
 cities. For these men it is especially necessary to provide 
 hard and rough play. Of course, if such play is made 
 a serious business, the result is very bad; but this does 
 not in the least affect the fact that within proper limits 
 the play itself is good. Vigorous athletic sports carried 
 on in a sane spirit are healthy. The hardy out-of-door 
 sports of the wilderness are even healthier. It is a mere 
 truism to say that the qualities developed by the hunter 
 
THE MULE-DEER 255 
 
 are the qualities needed by the soldier; and a curious 
 feature of the changed conditions of modern warfare is 
 that they call, to a much greater extent than during the 
 two or three centuries immediately past, for the very 
 qualities of individual initiative, ability to live and work 
 in the open, and personal skill in the management of 
 horse and weapons, which are fostered by a hunter's life. 
 No training in the barracks or on the parade-ground is 
 as good as the training given by a hard hunting trip in 
 which a man really does the work for himself, learns to 
 face emergencies, to study country, to perform feats of 
 hardihood, to face exposure and undergo severe labor. 
 It is an excellent thing for any man to be a good horse- 
 man and a good marksman, to be bold and hardy, and 
 wonted to feats of strength and endurance, to be able to 
 live in the open, and to feel a self-reliant readiness in any 
 crisis. Big game hunting tends to produce or develop 
 exactly these physical and moral traits. To say that it 
 may be pursued in a manner or to an extent which is 
 demoralizing, is but to say what can likewise be said of 
 all other pastimes and of almost all kinds of serious busi- 
 ness. That it can be abused either in the way in which 
 it is done, or the extent to which it is carried, does not 
 alter the fact that it is in itself a sane and healthy rec- 
 reation. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE WAPITI, OR ROUND-HORNED ELK 
 
 The wapiti is the largest and stateliest deer in the 
 world. A full-grown bull is as big as a steer. The ant- 
 lers are the most magnificent trophies yielded by any 
 game animal of America, save the giant Alaskan moose. 
 When full grown they are normally of twelve tines ; fre- 
 quently the tines are more numerous, but the increase in 
 their number has no necessary accompaniment in increase 
 in the size of the antlers. The length, massiveness, rough- 
 ness, spread, and symmetry of the antlers must all be 
 taken into account in rating the value of a head. Antlers 
 over fifty inches in length are large; if over sixty, they 
 are gigantic. Good heads are getting steadily rarer under 
 the persecution which has thinned out the herds. 
 
 Next to the bison the wapiti is of all the big game 
 animals of North America the one whose range has 
 most decreased. Originally it was found from the Pacific 
 coast east across the AUeghanies, through New York to 
 the Adirondacks, through Pennsylvania into western 
 New Jersey, and far down into the mid-country of Vir- 
 ginia and the Carolinas. It extended northward into 
 Canada, from the Great Lakes to Vancouver; and south- 
 ward into Mexico, along the Rockies. Its range thus 
 corresponded roughly with that of the bison, except that 
 
 it went farther west and not so far north. In the early 
 
 256 
 
THE WAPITI 257 
 
 colonial days so little heed was paid by writers to the 
 teeming myriads of game that it is difficult to trace the 
 wapiti's distribution in the Atlantic coast region. It was 
 certainly killed out of the Adirondacks long before the 
 period when the backwoodsmen were settling the val- 
 leys of the Alleghany Mountains; there they found the 
 elk abundant, and the stately creatures roamed in great 
 bands over Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana 
 when the first settlers made their way into what are now 
 these States, at the outbreak of the Revolution. These 
 first settlers were all hunters, and they followed the wapiti 
 (or, as they always called it, the elk) with peculiar eager- 
 ness. In consequence its numbers were soon greatly 
 thinned, and about the beginning of the present century 
 it disappeared from that portion of its former range lying 
 south of the Great Lakes and between the Alleghanies 
 and the Mississippi. In the northern Alleghanies it held 
 its own much longer, the last individual of which I have 
 been able to get record having been killed in Pennsyl- 
 vania in 1869. In the forests of northern Wisconsin, 
 northern Michigan, and Minnesota wapiti existed still 
 longer, and a very few individuals may still be found. 
 A few are left in Manitoba. When Lewis and Clark and 
 Pike became the pioneers among the explorers, army of- 
 ficers, hunters, and trappers who won for our people the 
 great West, they found countless herds of wapiti through- 
 out the high plains country from the Mississippi River 
 to the Rocky Mountains. Throughout this region it was 
 exterminated almost as rapidly as the bison, and by the 
 early eighties there only remained a few scattered indi- 
 
258 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 viduals, in bits of rough country such as the Black Hills, 
 the sand-hills of Nebraska, and certain patches of Bad 
 Lands along the Little Missouri. Doubtless stragglers 
 exist even yet in one or two of these localities. But by 
 the time the great buffalo herds of the plains were com- 
 pletely exterminated, in 1883, the wapiti had likewise 
 ceased to be a plains animal; the peculiar Californian 
 form had also been well-nigh exterminated. 
 
 The nature of its favorite haunts was the chief factor 
 in causing it to suffer more than any other game in 
 America, save the bison, from the persecution of hunters 
 and settlers. The boundaries of its range have shrunk 
 in far greater proportion than in the case of any of our 
 other game animals, save only the great wild ox, with 
 which it was once so commonly associated. The moose, 
 a beast of the forest, and the caribou, which, save in the 
 far North, is also a beast of the forest, have in most places 
 greatly diminished in numbers, and have here and there 
 been exterminated altogether from outlying portions of 
 their range ; but the wapiti, which, when free to choose, 
 preferred to frequent the plains and open woods, has 
 completely vanished from nine-tenths of the territory 
 over which it roamed a century and a quarter ago. Al- 
 though it was never found in any one place in such enor- 
 mous numbers as the bison and the caribou, it nevertheless 
 went in herds far larger than the herds of any other 
 American game save the two mentioned, and was for- 
 merly very much more abundant within the area of its 
 distribution than was the moose within the area of its 
 distribution. 
 
THE WAPITI 259 
 
 This splendid deer affords a good instance of the 
 difficulty of deciding what name to use in treating of our 
 American game. On the one hand, it is entirely undesir- 
 able to be pedantic ; and on the other hand, it seems a pity, 
 at a time when speech is written almost as much as spo- 
 ken, to use terms which perpetually require explanation 
 in order to avoid confusion. The wapiti is not properly 
 an elk at all ; the term wapiti is unexceptionable, and it 
 is greatly to be desired that it should be generally adopted. 
 But unfortunately it has not been generally adopted. 
 From the time when our backwoodsmen first began to 
 hunt the animal among the foothills of the Appalachian 
 chains to the present day, it has been universally known 
 as elk wherever it has been found. In ordinary speech 
 it is never known as anything else, and only an occasional 
 settler or hunter would understand what the word wapiti 
 referred to. The book name is a great deal better than 
 the common name ; but after all, it is only a book name. 
 The case is almost exactly parallel to that of the buffalo, 
 which was really a bison, but which lived as the buffalo, 
 died as the buffalo, and left its name imprinted on our 
 landscape as the buffalo. There is little use in trying 
 to upset a name which is imprinted in our geography in 
 hundreds of such titles as Elk Ridge, Elk Mountain, Elk- 
 horn River. Yet in the books it is often necessary to 
 call it the wapiti in order to distinguish it both from its 
 differently named close kinsfolk of the Old World, and 
 from its more distant relatives with which it shares the 
 name of elk. 
 
 Disregarding the Pacific coast form of Vancouver 
 
26o AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 and the Olympian Mountains, the wapiti is now a beast 
 of the Rocky Mountain region proper, especially in west- 
 ern Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Throughout 
 these mountains its extermination, though less rapid than 
 on the plains, has nevertheless gone on with melancholy 
 steadiness. In the early nineties it was still as abundant 
 as ever in large regions in western Wyoming and Mon- 
 tana and northwestern Colorado. In northwestern Colo- 
 rado the herds are now represented by only a few hundred 
 individuals. In western Montana they are scattered over 
 a wider region and are protected by the denser timber, 
 but are nowhere plentiful. They have nearly vanished 
 from the Big Horn Mountains. They are still abundant 
 in and around their great nursery and breeding-ground, 
 the Yellowstone National Park. If this park could be 
 extended so as to take in part of the winter range to the 
 south, it would help to preserve them, to the delight of 
 all lovers of nature, and to the great pecuniary benefit 
 of the people of Wyoming and Montana. But at present 
 the winter range south of the park is filling up with 
 settlers, and unless the conditions change, those among the 
 Yellowstone wapiti which would normally go south will 
 more and more be compelled to winter among the moun- 
 tains, which will mean such immense losses from starva- 
 tion and deep snow that the southern herds will be wo- 
 fully thinned.^ Surely all men who care for nature, no 
 less than all men who care for big game hunting, should 
 combine to try to see that not merely the States but the 
 Federal authorities make every effort, and are given every 
 
 • Steps in the direction indicated are now being taken by the Federal authorities. 
 
THE WAPITI 261 
 
 power, to prevent the extermination of this stately and 
 beautiful animal, the lordliest of the deer kind in the 
 entire world. 
 
 The wapiti, like the bison, and even more than the 
 whitetail deer, can thrive in widely varying surround- 
 ings. It is at home among the high mountains, in the 
 deep forests, and on the treeless, level plains. It is rather 
 omnivorous in its tastes, browsing and grazing on all 
 kinds of trees, shrubs and grasses. These traits, and its 
 hardihood, make it comparatively easy to perpetuate in 
 big parks and forest preserves in a semi-wild condition ; 
 and it has thriven in such preserves and parks in many 
 of the Eastern States. As it does not, by preference, dwell 
 in such tangled forests as are the delight of the moose 
 and the whitetail deer, it vanishes much quicker than 
 either when settlers appear in the land. In the mountains 
 and foothills its habitat is much the same as that of the 
 mule-deer, the two animals being often found in the im- 
 mediate neighborhood of each other. In such places the 
 superior size and value of the wapiti put it at a disad- 
 vantage in the keen struggle for life, and when the rifle- 
 bearing hunter appears upon the scene, it is killed out 
 long before its smaller kinsman. . 
 
 Moreover, the wapiti is undoubtedly subject to queer 
 freaks of panic stupidity, or what seems like a mixture 
 of tameness and of puzzled terror. At these times a herd 
 will remain almost motionless, the individuals walking 
 undecidedly to and fro, and neither flinching nor giving 
 any other sign even when hit with a bullet. In the old 
 days it was not uncommon for a professional hunter to 
 
262 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 destroy an entire herd of wapiti when one of these fits 
 of confusion was on them. Even nowadays they some- 
 times behave in this way. In 1897, Mr. Ansley Wilcox, 
 of Bufifalo, was hunting in the Teton basin. He came 
 across a small herd of wapiti, the first he had ever seen, 
 and opened fire when a hundred and fifty yards distant. 
 They paid no heed to the shots, and after taking three or 
 four at one bull, with seemingly no effect, he ran in closer 
 and emptied his magazine at another, also seemingly 
 without effect, before the herd slowly disappeared. 
 After a few rods, both bulls fell; and on examination 
 it was found that all nine bullets had hit them. 
 
 To my mind, the venison of the wapiti is, on the 
 whole, better than that of any other wild game, though 
 its fat, when cooled, at once hardens, like mutton tallow. 
 
 In its life habits the wapiti differs somewhat from its 
 smaller relatives. It is far more gregarious, and is highly 
 polygamous. During the spring, while the bulls are 
 growing their great antlers, and while the cows have 
 very young calves, both bulls and cows live alone, each 
 individual for itself. At such time each seeks the most 
 secluded situation, often going very high up on the moun- 
 tains. Occasionally a couple of bulls lie together, mov- 
 ing around as little as possible. The cow at this time 
 realizes that her calf's chance of life depends upon her 
 absolute seclusion, and avoids all observation. 
 
 As the horns begin to harden the bulls thrash the 
 velvet off against quaking asp, or ash, or even young 
 spruce, splintering and battering the bushes and small 
 trees. The cows and calves begin to assemble; the bulls 
 
THE WAPITI 263 
 
 seek them. But the bulls do not run the cows as among 
 the smaller deer the bucks run the does. The time of 
 the beginning of the rut varies in different places, but it 
 usually takes place in September, about a month earlier 
 than that of the deer in the same locality. The necks 
 of the bulls swell and they challenge incessantly, for, un- 
 like the smaller deer, they are very noisy. Their love and 
 war calls, when heard at a little distance amid the moun- 
 tains, have a most musical sound. Frontiersmen usually 
 speak of their call as " whistling," which is not an ap- 
 propriate term. The call may be given in a treble or in 
 a bass, but usually consists of two or three bars, first rising 
 and then falling, followed by a succession of grunts. The 
 grunts can only be heard when close up. There can 
 be no grander or more attractive chorus than the chal- 
 lenging of a number of wapiti bulls when two great herds 
 happen to approach one another under the moonlight or 
 in the early dawn. The pealing notes echo through the 
 dark valleys as if from silver bugles, and the air is filled 
 with the wild music. Where little molested the wapiti 
 challenge all day long. 
 
 They can be easiest hunted during the rut, the hunter 
 placing them, and working up to them, by the sound 
 alone. The bulls are excessively truculent and pugna- 
 cious. Each big one gathers a herd of cows about him 
 and drives all possible rivals away from his immediate 
 neighborhood, although sometimes spike bulls are al- 
 lowed to remain with the herd. Where wapiti are very 
 abundant, however, many of these herds may join to- 
 gether and become partially welded into a mass that may 
 
264 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 contain thousands of animals. In the old days such huge 
 herds were far from uncommon, especially during the 
 migrations; but nowadays there only remain one or two 
 localities in which wapiti are sufficiently plentiful ever 
 to come together in bands of any size. The bulls are 
 incessantly challenging and fighting one another, and 
 driving around the cows and calves. Each keeps the 
 most jealous watch over his own harem, treating its mem- 
 bers with great brutality, and is selfishly indifferent to 
 their fate the instant he thinks his own life in jeopardy. 
 During the rut the erotic manifestations of the bull are 
 extraordinary. 
 
 One or two fawns are born about May. In the moun- 
 tains the cow usually goes high up to bring forth her 
 fawn. Personally I have only had a chance to observe 
 the wapiti in spring in the neighborhood of my ranch 
 in the Bad Lands of the Little Missouri. Here the cow 
 invariably selected some wild, lonely bit of very broken 
 country in which there were dense thickets and some wa- 
 ter. There was one such patch some fifteen miles from 
 my ranch, in which for many years wapiti regularly bred. 
 The breeding cow lay by herself, although sometimes the 
 young of the preceding year would lurk in the neigh- 
 borhood. For the first few days the calf hardly left the 
 bed, and would not move even when handled. Then it 
 began to follow the mother. In this particular region 
 the grass was coarse and rank, save for a few patches in 
 the immediate neighborhood of little alkali springs. Ac- 
 cordingly, it was not much visited by the cattle or by the 
 cowboys. Doubtless in the happier days of the past. 
 
THE PACK TRAIN 
 
THE WAPITI 265 
 
 when man was merely an infrequent interloper, the wapiti 
 cows had made their nurseries in pleasanter and more 
 fruitful valleys. But in my time the hunted creatures 
 had learned that their only chance was to escape observa- 
 tion. I have known not only cows with young calves, but 
 cows when the calves were out of the spotted coat, and 
 even yearlings, to try to escape by hiding — the great 
 beasts lying like rabbits in some patch of thick brush, 
 while I rode close by. The best hunting horse I ever 
 had, old Manitou, in addition to his other useful quali- 
 ties, would serve as a guard on such occasions. I would 
 leave him on a little hillock to one side of such a patch 
 of brush, and as he walked slowly about, grazing and 
 rattling his bridle chains, he would prevent the wapiti 
 breaking cover on that side, and give me an additional 
 chance of slipping around toward them — although if the 
 animal was a cow, I never molested it unless in dire 
 need of meat. 
 
 Most of my elk-hunting was done among the stupen- 
 dous mountain masses of the Rockies, which I usually 
 reached after a long journey, with wagon or pack-train, 
 over the desolate plains. Ordinarily I planned to get to 
 the hunting-ground by the end of August, so as to have 
 ample time. By that date the calves were out of the 
 spotted coat, the cows and the young of the preceding 
 year had banded, and the big bulls had come down to 
 join them from the remote recesses in which they had 
 been lying, solitary or in couples, while their antlers were 
 growing. Many bulls were found alone, or, if young, 
 in small parties; but the normal arrangement was for 
 
266 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 each big bull to have his own harem, around the out- 
 skirts of which there were to be found lurking occasional 
 spike bulls or two-year-olds who were always venturing 
 too near and being chased off by the master bull. Fre- 
 quently several such herds joined together into a great 
 band. Before the season was fairly on, when the bulls 
 had not been worked into actual frenzy, there was not 
 much fighting in these bands. Later they were the scenes 
 of desperate combats. Each master bull strove to keep 
 his harem under his own eyes, and was always threaten- 
 ing and fighting the other master bulls, as well as those 
 bulls whose prowess had proved insufficient hitherto to 
 gain them a band, or who, after having gained one, had 
 been so exhausted and weakened as to succumb to some 
 new aspirant for the leadership. The bulls were calling 
 and challenging all the time, and there was ceaseless tur- 
 moil, owing to their fights and their driving the cows 
 around. The cows were more wary than the bulls, and 
 there were so many keen noses and fairly good eyes that 
 it was difficult to approach a herd; whereas the single 
 bulls were so noisy, careless, and excited that it was com- 
 paratively easy to stalk them. A rutting wapiti bull is as 
 wicked-looking a creature as can be imagined, swagger- 
 ing among the cows and threatening the young bulls, his 
 jaws mouthing and working in a kind of ugly leer. 
 
 The bulls fight desperately with one another. The 
 two combatants come together with a resounding clash 
 of antlers, and then push and strain with their mouths 
 open. The skin on their necks and shoulders is so thick 
 and tough that the great prongs cannot get through or 
 
THE WAPITI 267 
 
 do more than inflict bruises. The only danger comes 
 when the beaten party turns to flee. The victor pursues 
 at full speed. Usually the beaten one gets off ; but if by 
 accident he is caught where he cannot escape, he is very 
 apt to be gored in the flank and killed. Mr. Baillie- 
 Grohman has given a very interesting description of one 
 such fatal duel of which he was an eye-witness on a moon- 
 light night in the mountains. I have never known of the 
 bull trying to protect the cow from any enemy. He 
 battles for her against rivals with intense ferocity; but 
 his attitude toward her, once she is gained, is either that 
 of brutality or of indifference. She will fight for her 
 calf against any enemy which she thinks she has a chance 
 of conquering, although of course not against man. But 
 the bull leaves his family to their fate the minute he 
 thinks there is any real danger. During the rut he is 
 greatly excited, and does not fear a dog or a single wolf, 
 and may join with the rest of the herd of both sexes in 
 trying to chase off one or the other, should he become 
 aware of its approach. But if there is serious danger, 
 his only thought is for himself, and he has no compunc- 
 tions about sacrificing any of his family. When on the 
 move a cow almost always goes first, while the bull brings 
 up the rear. 
 
 In domestication the bulls are very dangerous to 
 human beings, and will kill a man at once if they can 
 get him at a disadvantage; but in a state of nature they 
 rarely indeed overcome their abject terror of humanity, 
 even when wounded and cornered. Of course, if the man 
 comes straight up to him where he cannot get away, a 
 
268 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 wapiti will fight as, under like circumstances, a blacktail 
 or whitetail will fight, and equally, of course, he is then 
 far more dangerous than his smaller kinsfolk; but he is 
 not nearly so apt to charge as a bull moose. I have never 
 known but two authentic instances of their thus charg- 
 ing. One happened to a hunter named Bennett, on the 
 Little Missouri ; the other to a gentleman I met, a doctor, 
 in Meeker, Colorado. The doctor had wounded his 
 wapiti, and as it was in the late fall, followed him easily 
 in the snow. Finally he came upon the wapiti standing 
 where the snow was very deep at the bottom of a small 
 valley, and on his approach the wapiti deliberately 
 started to break his way through the snow toward him, 
 and had almost reached him when he was killed. But 
 for every one such instance of a wapiti's charging there 
 are a hundred in which a bull moose has charged. Sena- 
 tor Redfield Proctor was charged most resolutely by a 
 mortally hurt bull moose which fell in the death throes 
 just before reaching him; and I could cite case after 
 case of the kind. 
 
 The wapiti's natural gaits are a walk and a trot. It 
 walks very fast indeed, especially if travelling to reach 
 some given point. More than once I have sought to over- 
 take a travelling bull, and have found myself absolutely 
 unable to do so, although it never broke its walk. Of 
 course, if I had not been obliged to pay any heed to cover 
 or wind, I could have run up on it; but the necessity 
 for paying heed to both handicapped me so that I was 
 actually unable to come up to the quarry as it swung 
 steadily on through woodland and open, over rough 
 
THE WAPITI 269 
 
 ground and smooth. Wapiti have a slashing trot, which 
 they can keep up for an indefinite time and over any- 
 kind of country. Only a good pony can overtake them 
 when they have had any start and have settled into this 
 trot. If much startled they break into a gallop — the 
 young being always much more willing to gallop than 
 the old. Their gallop is very fast, especially downhill. 
 But they speedily tire under it. A yearling or a two-year- 
 old can keep it up for a couple of miles. A heavy old 
 bull will be done out after a few hundred yards. I once 
 saw a band of wapiti frightened into a gallop down a 
 steep incline where there were also a couple of mule- 
 deer. I had not supposed that wapiti ran as fast as mule- 
 deer, but this particular band actually passed the deer, 
 though the latter were evidently doing their best; the 
 wapiti were well ahead, when, after thundering down the 
 steep, broken incline, they all disappeared into a belt 
 of woodland. In spite of their size, wapiti climb well 
 and go sure-footedly over difficult and dangerous ground. 
 They have a habit of coming out to the edges of cliffs, 
 or on mountain spurs, and looking over the landscape 
 beneath, almost as though they enjoyed the scenery. 
 What their real object is on such occasions I do not 
 know. 
 
 The nose of the wapiti is very keen. Its sight is much 
 inferior to that of the antelope, but about as good as a 
 deer's. Its hearing is also much like that of a deer. 
 When in country where it is little molested, it feeds and 
 moves about freely by day, lying down to rest at inter- 
 vals, like cattle. Wapiti offer especial attractions to the 
 
270 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 hunter, and next to the bison are more quickly exter- 
 minated than any other kind of game. Only the fact that 
 they possessed a far wider range of habitat than either 
 the mule-deer, the prongbuck, or the moose, has enabled 
 them still to exist. Their gregariousness is also against 
 them. Even after the rut the herds continue together 
 until in midspring the bulls shed their antlers — for they 
 keep their antlers at least two months longer than deer. 
 During the fall, winter, and early spring wapiti are rov- 
 ing, restless creatures. Their habit of migration varies 
 with locality, as among mule-deer. Along the little Mis- 
 souri, as in the plains country generally, there was no 
 well-defined migration. Up to the .early eighties, when 
 wapiti were still plentiful, the bands wandered far and 
 wide, but fitfully and irregularly, wholly without regard 
 to the season, save that they were stationary from May 
 to August. After 1883 there were but a few individuals 
 left, although as late as 1886 I once came across a herd 
 of nine. These surviving individuals had learned cau- 
 tion. The bulls only called by night, and not very 
 frequently then, and they spent the entire year in the 
 roughest and most out-of-the-way places, having the same 
 range both winter and summer. They selected tracts 
 where the ground was very broken and there was much 
 shrubbery and patches of small trees. This tree and 
 bush growth gave them both shelter and food; for they 
 are particularly fond of browsing on the leaves and ten- 
 der twig ends, though they also eat weeds and grass. 
 
 Wherever wapiti dwell among the mountains they 
 make regular seasonal migrations. In northwestern 
 
THE WAPITI 271 
 
 Wyoming they spend the summer in the Yellowstone 
 National Park, but in winter some go south to Jackson's 
 Hole, while others winter in the park to the northeast. 
 In northwestern Colorado their migrations followed 
 much the same line as those of the mule-deer. In dif- 
 ferent localities the length of the migration, and even the 
 time, differed. There were some places where the shift 
 was simply from the high mountains down to their foot- 
 hills. In other places great herds travelled a couple of 
 hundred miles, so that localities absolutely barren one 
 month would be swarming with wapiti the next. In 
 some places the shift took place as early as the month 
 of August; in others not until after the rut, in October 
 or even November; and in some places the rut took place 
 during the migration. 
 
 No chase is more fascinating than that of the wapiti. 
 In the old days, when the mighty antlered beasts were 
 found upon the open plains, they could be followed upon 
 horseback, with or without hounds. Nowadays, when 
 they dwell in the mountains, they are to be killed only 
 by the rifle-bearing still-hunter. Needless butchery of 
 any kind of animal is repulsive, but in the case of the 
 wapiti it is little short of criminal. He is the grandest 
 of the deer kind throughout the world, and he has al- 
 ready vanished from most of the places where he once 
 dwelt in his pride. Every true sportsman should feel it 
 incumbent upon him to do all in his power to preserve 
 so noble a beast of the chase from extinction. No harm 
 whatever comes to the species from killing a certain num- 
 ber of bulls; but an excessive number should never be 
 
272 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 killed, and no cow or calf should under any circumstances 
 be touched. Formerly, when wapiti were plentiful, it 
 would have been folly for hunters and settlers in the 
 unexplored wilderness not to kill wild game for their 
 meat, and occasionally a cow or a calf had to be thus 
 slain ; but there is no excuse nowadays for a hunting party 
 killing anything but a full-grown bull. 
 
 In a civilized and cultivated country wild animals 
 only continue to exist at all when preserved by sports- 
 men. The excellent people who protest against all hunt- 
 ing, and consider sportsmen as enemies of wild life, are 
 ignorant of the fact that in reality the genuine sports- 
 man is by all odds the most important factor in keeping 
 the larger and more valuable wild creatures from total 
 extermination. Of course, if wild animals were allowed 
 to breed unchecked, they would, in an incredibly short 
 space of time, render any country uninhabitable by man 
 — a fact which ought to be a matter of elementary knowl- 
 edge in any community where the average intelligence 
 is above that of certain portions of Hindoostan. Equally, 
 of course, in a purely utilitarian community all wild ani- 
 mals are exterminated out of hand. In order to preserve 
 the wild life of the wilderness at all, some middle ground 
 must be found between brutal and senseless slaughter and 
 the unhealthy sentimentalism which would just as surely 
 defeat its own end by bringing about the eventual total 
 extinction of the game. It is impossible to preserve the 
 larger wild animals in regions thoroughly fit for agri- 
 culture; and it is perhaps too much to hope that the 
 larger carnivores can be preserved for merely aesthetic 
 
THE WAPITI 273 
 
 reasons. But throughout our country there are large re- 
 gions entirely unsuited for agriculture, where, if the peo- 
 ple only have foresight, they can, through the power of 
 the State, keep the game in perpetuity. There is no hope 
 of preserving the bison permanently, save in large private 
 parks; but all other game, including not merely deer, 
 but the pronghorn, the splendid bighorn, and the stately 
 and beautiful wapiti, can be kept on the> public lands, if 
 only the proper laws are passed, and if only these laws 
 are properly enforced. 
 
 Most of us, as we grow older, grow to care relatively 
 less for sport than for the splendid freedom and abound- 
 ing health of outdoor life in the woods, on the plains, 
 and among the great mountains; and to the true nature 
 lover it is melancholy to see the wilderness stripped of 
 the wild creatures which gave it no small part of its 
 peculiar charm. It is inevitable, and probably necessary, 
 that the wolf and the cougar should go ; but the bighorn 
 and white goat among the rocks, the blacktail and wapiti 
 grouped on the mountain side, the whitetail and moose 
 feeding in the sedgy ponds — these add beyond measure 
 to the wilderness landscape, and if they are taken away 
 they leave a lack which nothing else can quite make 
 good. So it is of those true birds of the wilderness, the 
 eagle and the raven, and, indeed, of all the wild things, 
 furred, feathered, and finned. 
 
 A peculiar charm in the chase of the wapiti comes 
 from the wild beauty of the country in which it dwells. 
 The moose lives in marshy forests; if one would seek 
 the white goat or caribou of the northern Rockies, he 
 
274 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 must travel on foot, pack on back; while the successful 
 chase of the bighorn, perhaps on the whole the manliest 
 of all our sports, means heart-breaking fatigue for any 
 but the strongest and hardiest. The prongbuck, again, 
 must be followed on the desolate, sun-scorched plains. 
 But the wapiti now dwells amid lofty, pine-clad moun- 
 tains, in a region of lakes and streams. A man can travel 
 in comfort while hunting it, because he can almost al- 
 ways take a pack-train with him, and the country is usu- 
 ally sufficiently open to enable the hunter to enjoy all 
 the charm of distant landscapes. Where the wapiti lives 
 the spotted trout swarm in the brooks, and the wood- 
 grouse fly upward to perch among the tree-tops as the 
 hunter passes them. When hunting him there is always 
 sweet cold water to be drunk at night, and beds of aro- 
 matic fir boughs on which to sleep, with the blankets 
 drawn over one to keep out the touch of the frost. He 
 must be followed on foot, and the man who follows him 
 must be sound in limb and wind. But his pursuit does 
 not normally mean such wearing exhaustion as is en- 
 tailed by climbing cliffs all day long after the white 
 goat. Whoever has hunted the wapiti, as he looks at his 
 trophies will always think of the great mountains with 
 the snow lying in the rifts in their sides ; of the splashing 
 murmur of rock-choked torrents; of the odorous breath 
 of the pine branches; of tents pitched in open glades; 
 of long walks through cool, open forests; and of great 
 camp-fires, where the pitchy stumps flame like giant 
 torches in the darkness. 
 
 In the old days, of course, much of the hunting was 
 
THE WAPITI 27s 
 
 done on the open plains or among low, rugged hills. The 
 wapiti that I shot when living at my Little Missouri 
 ranch were killed under exactly the same conditions as 
 mule-deer. When I built my ranch-house, wapiti were 
 still not uncommon, and their shed antlers were very nu- 
 merous both on the bottoms and in places among the hills. 
 There was one such place a couple of miles from my 
 ranch in a stretch of comparatively barren but very broken 
 hill-country in which there were many score of these shed 
 antlers. Evidently a few years before this had been a 
 great gathering-place for wapiti toward the end of win- 
 ter. My ranch itself derived its name, " The Elkhorn," 
 from the fact that on the ground where we built it were 
 found the skulls and interlocked antlers of two wapiti 
 bulls who had perished from getting their antlers fast- 
 ened in a battle. I never, however, killed a wapiti while 
 on a day's hunt from the ranch itself. Those that I killed 
 were obtained on regular expeditions, when I took the 
 wagon and drove off to spend a night or two on ground 
 too far for me to hunt it through in a single day from 
 the ranch. Moreover, the wapiti on the Little Missouri 
 had been so hunted that they had entirely abandoned the 
 diurnal habits of their kind, and it was a great advan- 
 tage to get on the ground early. This hunting was not 
 carried on amid the glorious mountain scenery which 
 marks the home of the wapiti in the Rockies; but the 
 surroundings had a charm of their own. All really wild 
 scenery is attractive. The true hunter, the true lover 
 of the wilderness, loves all parts of the wilderness, just 
 as the true lover of nature loves all seasons. There is 
 
2/6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 no season of the year when the country is not more at- 
 tractive than the city; and there is no portion of the wil- 
 derness, where game is found, in which it is not a keen 
 pleasure to hunt. Perhaps no other kind of country 
 quite equals that where snow lies on the lofty mountain 
 peaks, where there are many open glades in the pine for- 
 ests, and clear mountain lakes and rushing trout-filled 
 torrents. But the fantastic desolation of the Bad Lands, 
 and the endless sweep of the brown prairies, alike have 
 their fascination for the true lover of nature and lover 
 of the wilderness who goes through them on foot or on 
 horseback. As for the broken hill-country in which I 
 followed the wapiti and the mule-deer along the Little 
 Missouri, it would be strange indeed if any one found 
 it otherwise than attractive in the bright, sharp fall 
 weather. Long, grassy valleys wound among the boldly 
 shaped hills. The basins were filled with wind-beaten 
 trees and brush, which generally also ran alongside of the 
 dry watercourses down the middle of each valley. Cedars 
 clustered in the sheer ravines, and here and there groups 
 of elm and ash grew to a considerable height in the more 
 sheltered places. At the first touch of the frost the foliage 
 turned russet or yellow — the Virginia creepers crimson. 
 Under the cloudless blue sky the air was fresh and cool, 
 and as we lay by the camp-fire at night the stars shone 
 with extraordinary brilliancy. Under such conditions 
 the actual chase of the wapiti was much like that of the 
 mule-deer. They had been so hunted that they showed 
 none of the foolish traits which they are prone to exhibit 
 when bands are found in regions where they have been 
 
THE WAPITI 277 
 
 little persecuted ; and they were easier to kill than mule- 
 deer simply because they were more readily tracked and 
 more readily seen, and offered a larger, and on the whole 
 a steadier, mark at which to shoot. When a small band 
 had visited a pool their tracks could be identified at once, 
 because in the soft ground the flexible feet spread and 
 yielded so as to leave the marks of the false hoofs. On 
 ordinary ground it was difficult to tell their footprints 
 from those of the yearling and two-year-old ranch cattle. 
 But the mountains are the true ground for the wapiti. 
 Here he must be hunted on foot, and nowadays, since he 
 has grown wiser, skill and patience, and the capacity to 
 endure fatigue and exposure, must be shown by the suc- 
 cessful hunter. My own wapiti-hunting has been done 
 in September and early October during the height of 
 the rut, and therefore at a time when the conditions were 
 most favorable for the hunter. I have hunted them in 
 many places throughout the Rockies, from the Big Horn 
 in western Wyoming to the Big Hole Basin in western 
 Montana, close to the Idaho line. Where I hunted, the 
 wapiti were always very noisy both by day and by night, 
 and at least half of the bulls that I killed attracted my 
 ' attention by their calling before I saw either them or their 
 tracks. At night they frequently passed close to camp, 
 or came nearly up to the picketed horses, challenging all 
 the time. More than once I slipped out, hoping to kill 
 one by moonlight, but I never succeeded. Occasionally, 
 when they were plentiful, and were restless and always 
 roving about, I simply sat still on a log, until one gave 
 me a chance. Sometimes I came across them while hunt- 
 
278 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 ing through likely localities, going up or across wind, 
 keeping the sharpest lookout, and moving with great care 
 and caution, until I happened to strike the animals I 
 was after. More than once I took the trail of a band, 
 when out with some first-class woodsman, and after much 
 running, dodging, and slipping through the timber, over- 
 took the animals — though usually when thus merely fol- 
 lowing the trail I failed to come up with them. On two 
 different occasions I followed and came up to bands, 
 attracted by their scent. Wapiti have a strong, and, on 
 the whole, pleasing scent, like that of Alderney cattle, 
 although in old bulls it becomes offensively strong. This 
 scent is very penetrating. I once smelt a herd which was 
 lying quite still taking its noonday siesta, certainly half 
 a mile to the windward of me; and creeping up I shot 
 a good bull as he lay. On another occasion, while work- 
 ing through the tangled trees and underbrush at the bot- 
 tom of a little winding valley, I suddenly smelt wapiti 
 ahead, and without paying any further attention to the 
 search for tracks, I hunted cautiously up the valley, and 
 when it forked was able to decide by the smell alone 
 which way the wapiti had gone. He was going up 
 wind ahead of me, and his ground-covering walk kept 
 me at a trot in order to overtake him. Finally I saw 
 him, before he saw me, and then, by making a run to 
 one side, got a shot at him when he broke cover, and 
 dropped him. 
 
 It is exciting to creep up to a calling wapiti. If it 
 is a solitary bull, he is apt to be travelling, seeking the 
 cows, or on the lookout for some rival of weaker thews. 
 
THE WAPITI 279 
 
 Under such circumstances only hard running will enable 
 the hunter to overtake him, unless there is a chance to 
 cut him ofif. If, however, he hears another bull, or has 
 a herd under him, the chances are that he is nearly sta- 
 tionary, or at least is moving slowly, and the hunter has 
 every opportunity to approach. In a herd the bull him- 
 self is usually so absorbed both with his cows and with 
 his rivals that he is not at all apt to discover the ap- 
 proaching hunter. The cows, however, are thoroughly 
 awake, and it is their eyes and keen noses for which the 
 hunter must look out. A solitary bull which is answer- 
 ing the challenge of another is the easiest of all to 
 approach. Of course, if there has been much hunting, 
 even such a bull is wary and is on the lookout for harm. 
 But in remote localities he becomes so absorbed in finding 
 out the whereabouts of his rival, and is so busy answer- 
 ing the latter's challenges and going through motions 
 of defiance, that with proper care it is comparatively 
 easy to approach him. Once, when within seventy yards 
 of such a bull, he partly made me out and started toward 
 me. Evidently he could not tell exactly what I was — 
 my buckskin shirt probably helping to puzzle him — and 
 in his anger and eagerness he did not think of danger 
 until it was too late. On another occasion I got up to 
 two bulls that were fighting, and killed both. In the 
 fights, weight of body seems to count for more than size 
 of antlers. 
 
 Once I spent the better part of a day in following a 
 wapiti bull before I finally got him. Generally when 
 hunting wapiti I have been with either one of my men 
 
28o AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 from the ranch or a hunter like Tazewell Woody, or John 
 Willis. On this particular occasion, however, I hap- 
 pened to be alone ; and though I have rarely been as suc- 
 cessful alone as when in the company of some thoroughly 
 trained and experienced plainsman or mountainman, yet 
 when success does come under such circumstances it is 
 always a matter of peculiar pride. 
 
 At the time, I was camped in a beautiful valley 
 high among the mountains which divide southwestern 
 Montana from Idaho. The weather was cold, and there 
 were a couple of inches of snow on the ground, so that 
 the conditions were favorable for tracking and stalking. 
 The country was well wooded, but the forest was not 
 dense, and there were many open glades. Early one 
 morning, just about dawn, the cook, who had been up for 
 a few minutes, waked me, to say that a bull wapiti was 
 calling not far off. I rolled out of my bed and was 
 dressed in short order. The bull had by this time passed 
 the camp, and was travelling toward a range of moun- 
 tains on the other side of the stream which ran down the 
 valley bottom. He was evidently not alarmed, for he 
 was still challenging. I gulped down a cup of hot coffee, 
 munched a piece of hardtack, and thrust four or five other 
 pieces and a cold elk tongue into my hunting-shirt, and 
 then, as it had grown light enough to travel, started after 
 the wapiti. I supposed that in a few minutes I should 
 either have overtaken him or abandoned the pursuit, and 
 I took the food with me simply because in the wilderness 
 it never pays to be unprepared for emergencies. The 
 wisdom of such a course was shown in this instance by 
 
THE WAPITI 281 
 
 the fact that I did not see camp again until long after 
 dark. 
 
 I at first tried to cut off the wapiti by trotting through 
 the woods toward the pass for which I supposed he was 
 headed. The morning was cold, and, as always happens 
 at the outset when one starts to take violent exercise under 
 such circumstances, the running caused me to break into 
 a perspiration; so that the first time I stopped to listen 
 for the wapiti a regular fog rose over my glasses and 
 then froze on them. I could not see a thing, and after 
 wiping them found I had to keep gently moving in order 
 to prevent them from clouding over again. It is on 
 such cold mornings, or else in very rainy weather, that 
 the man who has not been gifted with good eyes is most 
 sensible of his limitations. I once lost a caribou which 
 I had been following at speed over the snow because 
 when I came into sight and halted the moisture instantly 
 formed and froze on my glasses so that I could not see 
 anything, and before I got them clear the game had van- 
 ished. Whatever happened, I was bound that I should 
 not lose this wapiti from a similar accident. 
 
 However, when I next heard him he had evidently 
 changed his course and was going straight away from me. 
 The sun had now risen, and following after him I soon 
 found his tracks. He was walking forward with the 
 regular wapiti stride, and I made up my mind I had a 
 long chase ahead of me. We were going up hill, and 
 though I walked hard, I did not trot until we topped the 
 crest. Then I jogged along at a good gait, and as I had 
 on moccasins, and the woods were open, I did not have 
 
282 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 to exercise much caution. Accordingly I gained, and 
 felt I was about to come up with him, when the wind 
 brought down from very far off another challenge. My 
 bull heard it before I did, and instantly started toward 
 the spot at a trot. There was not the slightest use of my 
 attempting to keep up with this, and I settled down into 
 a walk. Half an hour afterward I came over a slight 
 crest, and immediately saw a herd of wapiti ahead of me, 
 across the valley and on an open hillside. The herd was 
 in commotion, the master bull whistling vigorously and 
 rounding up his cows, evidently much excited at the new 
 bull's approach. There were two or three yearlings and 
 two-year-old bulls on the outskirts of the herd, and the 
 master bull, whose temper had evidently not been 
 improved by the coming of the stranger, occasionally 
 charged these and sent them rattling off through the 
 bushes. The ground was so open between me and them 
 that I dared not venture across it, and I was forced to lie 
 still and await developments. The bull I had been fol- 
 lowing and the herd bull kept challenging vigorously, 
 but the former probably recognized in the latter a heavier 
 animal, and could not rouse his courage to the point of 
 actually approaching and doing battle. It by no means 
 follows that the animal with the heaviest body has the best 
 antlers, but the hesitation thus shown by the bull I was 
 following made me feel that the other would probably 
 yield the more valuable trophies, and after a couple of 
 hours I made up my mind to try to get near the herd, 
 abandoning the animal I had been after. 
 
 The herd showed but little symptoms of moving, the 
 
THE WAPITI 283 
 
 cows when let alone scattering out to graze, and some 
 of them even lying down. Accordingly I did not hurry 
 myself, and spent considerably over an hour in slipping 
 off to the right and approaching through a belt of small 
 firs. Unfortunately, however, the wind had slightly 
 shifted, and while I was out of sight of the herd they had 
 also come down toward the spot from whence I had been 
 watching them. Accordingly, just as I was beginning 
 to creep forward with the utmost caution, expecting to 
 see them at any moment, I heard a thumping and crack- 
 ing of branches that showed they were on the run. With 
 wapiti there is always a chance of overtaking them after 
 they have first started, because they tack and veer and 
 halt to look around. Therefore I ran forward as fast 
 as I could through the woods ; but when I came to the 
 edge of the fir belt I saw that the herd were several hun- 
 dred yards off. They were clustered together and look- 
 ing back, and saw me at once. 
 
 Off they started again. The old bull, however, had 
 neither seen me nor smelt me, and when I heard his 
 whistle of rage I knew he had misinterpreted the reason 
 for the departure of his cows, and in another moment he 
 came in sight, evidently bent on rounding them up. On 
 his way he attacked and drove ofif one of the yearlings, 
 and then took after the cows, while the yearling ran toward 
 the outlying bull. The latter evidently failed to under- 
 stand what had happened ; at least he showed no signs of 
 alarm. Neither, however, did he attempt to follow the 
 fleeing herd, but started off again on his own line. 
 
 I was sure the herd would not stop for some miles, 
 
284 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 and accordingly I resumed my chase of the single bull. 
 He walked for certainly three miles before he again 
 halted, and I was then half a mile behind him. On this 
 occasion he struck a small belt of woodland and began 
 to travel to and fro through it, probably with an idea of 
 lying down. I was able to get up fairly close by crawl- 
 ing on all-fours through the snow for part of the distance ; 
 but just as I was about to fire he moved slightly, and 
 though my shot hit him, it went a little too far back. 
 He plunged over the hill crest and was off at a gallop, 
 and after running forward and failing to overtake him in 
 the first rush, I sat down to consider matters. The snow 
 had begun to melt under the sun, and my knees and the 
 lower parts of my sleeves were wet from my crawl, and I 
 was tired and hungry and very angry at having failed to 
 kill the wapiti. It was, however, early in the afternoon, 
 and I thought that if I let the wapiti alone for an hour, 
 he would lie down, and then grow stiff and reluctant to 
 get up ; while in the snow I was sure I could easily follow 
 his tracks. Therefore I ate my lunch, and then swal- 
 lowed some mouthfuls of snow in lieu of drinking. 
 
 An hour afterward I took the trail. It was evident 
 the bull was hard hit, but even after he had changed his 
 plunging gallop for a trot he showed no signs of stop- 
 ping; fortunately his trail did not cross any other. The 
 blood signs grew infrequent, and two or three times he 
 went up places which made it difficult for me to believe 
 he was much hurt. At last, however, I came to where 
 he had lain down ; but he had risen again and gone for- 
 ward. For a moment I feared that my approach had 
 
THE WAPITI 285 
 
 alarmed him, but this was evidently not the case, for he 
 was now walking. I left the trail, and turning to one 
 side below the wind I took a long circle and again struck 
 back to the bottom of the valley down which the wapiti 
 had been travelling. The timber here was quite thick, 
 and I moved very cautiously, continually halting and 
 listening for five or ten minutes. Not a sound did I 
 hear, and I crossed the valley bottom and began to ascend 
 the other side without finding the trail. Unless he had 
 turned off up the mountains I knew that this meant he 
 must have lain down; so I retraced my steps and with 
 extreme caution began to make my way up the valley. 
 Finally I came to a little opening, and after peering about 
 for five minutes I stepped forward, and instantly heard 
 a struggling and crashing in a clump of young spruce on 
 the other side. It was the wapiti trying to get on his 
 feet. I ran forward at my best pace, and as he was stiff 
 and slow in his movements I was within seventy yards 
 before he got fairly under way. Dropping on one knee, 
 I fired and hit him in the flank. At the moment I could 
 not tell whether or not I had missed him, for he gave 
 no sign ; but, running forward very fast, I speedily saw 
 him standing with his head down. He heard me and 
 again started, but at the third bullet down he went in his 
 tracks, the antlers clattering loudly on the branches of 
 a dead tree. 
 
 The snow was melting fast, and for fear it might go 
 off entirely, so that I could not follow my back track, I 
 went up the hillside upon which the wapiti lay, and tak- 
 ing a dead tree dragged it down to the bottom, leaving 
 
286 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 a long furrow. I then repeated the operation on the 
 opposite hillside, thus making a trace which it was im- 
 possible for any one coming up or down the valley to 
 overlook; and having conned certain landmarks by which 
 the valley itself could be identified, I struck toward camp 
 at a round trot; for I knew that if I did not get into the 
 valley where the tent lay before dark, I should have to 
 pass the night out. However, the last uncertain light of 
 dusk just enabled me to get over a spur from which I 
 could catch a glimpse of the camp-fire, and as I stumbled 
 toward it through the forest I heard a couple of shots, 
 which showed that the cook and packer were getting 
 anxious as to my whereabouts. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 WILDERNESS RESERVES; THE YELLOWSTONE PARK 
 
 The most striking and melancholy feature in connec- 
 tion with American big game is the rapidity with which 
 it has vanished. When, just before the outbreak of the 
 Revolutionary War, the rifle-bearing hunters of the back- 
 woods first penetrated the great forests west of the Alle- 
 ghanies, deer, elk, black bear, and even buffalo, swarmed 
 in what are now the States of Kentucky and Tennessee, 
 and the country north of the Ohio was a great and almost 
 virgin hunting-ground. From that day to this the shrink- 
 age has gone on, only partially checked here and there, 
 and never arrested as a whole. As a matter of historical 
 accuracy, however, it is well to bear in mind that many 
 writers, in lamenting this extinction of the game, have 
 from time to time anticipated or overstated the facts. 
 Thus as good an author as Colonel Richard Irving Dodge 
 spoke of the buffalo as practically extinct, while the great 
 Northern herd still existed in countless thousands. As 
 early as 1880 sporting authorities spoke not only of the 
 bufifalo, but of the elk, deer, and antelope as no longer to 
 be found in plenty; and recently one of the greatest of 
 living hunters has stated that it is no longer possible to 
 find any American wapiti bearing heads comparable with 
 the red deer of Hungary. As a matter of fact, in the 
 
 287 
 
288 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 early eighties there were still large regions where every 
 species of game that had ever been known within historic 
 times on our continent was still to be found as plentifully 
 as ever. In the early nineties there were still big tracts 
 of wilderness in which this was true of all game except 
 the buffalo ; for instance, it was true of the elk in portions 
 of northwestern Wyoming, of the blacktail in northwest- 
 ern Colorado, of the whitetail here and there in the 
 Indian Territory, and of the antelope in parts of New 
 Mexico. Even at the present day there are smaller, but 
 still considerable, regions where these four animals are 
 yet found in abundance ; and I have seen antlers of wapiti 
 shot since 1900 far surpassing any of which there is record 
 from Hungary. In New England and New York, as 
 well as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the whitetail 
 deer is more plentiful than it was thirty years ago, and 
 in Maine (and to an even greater extent in New Bruns- 
 wick) the moose, and here and there the caribou, have, on 
 the whole, increased during the same period. There is 
 yet ample opportunity for the big game hunter in the 
 United States, Canada and Alaska. 
 
 While it is necessary to give this word of warning to 
 those who, in praising time past, always forget the oppor- 
 tunities of the present, it is a thousandfold more neces- 
 sary to remember that these opportunities are, neverthe- 
 less, vanishing; and if we are a sensible people, we will 
 make it our business to see that the process of extinction 
 is arrested. At the present moment the great herds of 
 caribou are being butchered, as in the past the great herds 
 of bison and wapiti have been butchered. Every be- 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 289 
 
 liever in manliness, and therefore in manly sport, and 
 every lover of nature, every man w^ho appreciates the 
 majesty and beauty of the wilderness and of vi^ild life, 
 should strike hands with the far-sighted men who wish 
 to preserve our material resources, in the effort to keep 
 our forests and our game beasts, game birds, and game 
 fish — indeed, all the living creatures of prairie, and 
 woodland, and seashore — from wanton destruction. 
 
 Above all, we should realize that the effort toward 
 this end is essentially a democratic movement. It is en- 
 tirely in our power as a nation to preserve large tracts of 
 wilderness, which are valueless for agricultural purposes 
 and unfit for settlement, as playgrounds for rich and poor 
 alike, and to preserve the game so that it shall continue 
 to exist for the benefit of all lovers of nature, and to give 
 reasonable opportunities for the exercise of the skill of the 
 hunter, whether he is or is not a man of means. But this 
 end can only be achieved by wise laws and by a resolute 
 enforcement of the laws. Lack of such legislation and 
 administration will result in harm to all of us, but most 
 of all in harm to the nature lover who does not possess 
 vast wealth. Already there have sprung up here and 
 there through the country, as in New Hampshire and the 
 Adirondacks, large private preserves. These preserves 
 often serve a useful purpose, and should be encouraged 
 within reasonable limits; but it would be a misfortune 
 if they increased beyond a certain extent or if they took 
 the place of great tracts of wild land, which continue as 
 such either because of their very nature, or because of 
 the protection of the State exerted in the form of making 
 
290 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 them State or national parks or reserves. It is foolish to 
 regard proper game laws as undemocratic, unrepublican. 
 On the contrary, they are essentially in the interests of 
 the people as a whole, because it is only through their 
 enactment and enforcement that the people as a whole 
 can preserve the game and can prevent its becoming 
 purely the property of the rich, who are able to create and 
 maintain extensive private preserves. The wealthy man 
 can get hunting anyhow, but the man of small means is 
 dependent solely upon wise and well-executed game laws 
 for his enjoyment of the sturdy pleasure of the chase. In 
 Maine, in Vermont, in the Adirondacks, even in parts of 
 Massachusetts and on Long Island, people have waked 
 up to this fact, particularly so far as the common white- 
 tail deer is concerned, and in Maine also as regards the 
 moose and caribou. The effect is shown in the increase 
 in these animals. Such game protection results, in the 
 first place, in securing to the people who live in the neigh- 
 borhood permanent opportunities for hunting ; and in the 
 next place, it provides no small source of wealth to the 
 locality because of the visitors which it attracts. A deer 
 wild in the woods is worth to the people of the neighbor- 
 hood many times the value of its carcass, because of the 
 way it attracts sportsmen, who give employment and leave 
 money behind them. 
 
 True sportsmen, worthy of the name, men who shoot 
 only in season and in moderation, do no harm whatever 
 to game. The most objectionable of all game destroyers 
 is, of course, the kind of game butcher who simply kills 
 for the sake of the record of slaughter, who leaves deer 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 291 
 
 and ducks and prairie-chickens to rot after he has slain 
 them. Such a man is wholly obnoxious ; and, indeed, so 
 is any man who shoots for the purpose of establishing a 
 record of the amount of game killed. To my mind this 
 is one very unfortunate feature of what is otherwise the 
 admirably sportsmanlike English spirit in these matters. 
 The custom of shooting great bags of deer, grouse, par- 
 tridges, and pheasants, the keen rivalry in making such 
 bags, and their publication in sporting journals, are 
 symptoms of a spirit which is most unhealthy from every 
 standpoint. It is to be earnestly hoped that every Ameri- 
 can hunting or fishing club will strive to inculcate among 
 its own members, and in the minds of the general pub- 
 lic, that anything like an excessive bag, any destruction 
 for the sake of making a record, is to be severely rep- 
 robated. 
 
 But after all, this kind of perverted sportsman, un- 
 worthy though he be, is not the chief actor in the de- 
 struction of our game. The professional skin or market 
 hunter is the real offender. Yet he is of all others the 
 man who would ultimately be most benefited by the pres- 
 ervation of the game. The frontier settler, in a thor- 
 oughly wild country, is certain to kill game for his own 
 use. As long as he does no more than this, it is hard 
 to blame him ; although if he is awake to his own interests 
 he will soon realize that to him, too, the live deer is worth 
 far more than the dead deer, because of the way in which 
 it brings money into the wilderness. The professional 
 market hunter who kills game for the hide, or for the 
 feathers, or for the meat, or to sell antlers and other 
 
292 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 trophies ; the market men who put game in cold storage ; 
 and the rich people, who are content to buy what they 
 have not the skill to get by their own exertions — these 
 are the men who are the real enemies of game. Where 
 there is no law which checks the market hunters, the 
 inevitable result of their butchery is that the game is 
 completely destroyed, and with it their own means of 
 livelihood. If, on the other hand, they were willing to 
 preserve it, they could make much more money by acting 
 as guides. In northwestern Colorado, at the present mo- 
 ment, there are still blacktail deer in abundance, and some 
 elk are left. Colorado has fairly good game laws, but 
 they are indifferently enforced. The country in which 
 the game is found can probably never support any but 
 a very sparse population, and a large portion of the sum- 
 mer range is practically useless for settlement. If the 
 people of Colorado generally, and above all the people 
 of the counties in which the game is located, would res- 
 olutely cooperate with those of their own number who 
 are already alive to the importance of preserving the 
 game, it could, without difficulty, be kept always as abun- 
 dant as it now is, and this beautiful region would be a 
 permanent health resort and playground for the people 
 of a large part of the Union. Such action would be a 
 benefit to every one, but it would be a benefit most of 
 all to the people of the immediate locality. 
 
 The practical common sense of the American people 
 has been in no way made more evident during the last 
 few years than by the creation and use of a series of 
 large land reserves — situated for the most part on the 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 293 
 
 great plains and among the mountains of the West — in- 
 tended to keep the forests from destruction, and therefore 
 to conserve the water supply. These reserves are, and 
 should be, created primarily for economic purposes. The 
 semi-arid regions can only support a reasonable popula- 
 tion under conditions of the strictest economy and wisdom 
 in the use of the water supply, and in addition to their 
 other economic uses the forests are indispensably neces- 
 sary for the preservation of the water supply and for 
 rendering possible its useful distribution throughout the 
 proper seasons. In addition, however, to this economic 
 use of the wilderness, selected portions of it have been 
 kept here and there in a state of nature, not merely for 
 the sake of preserving the forests and the water, but for 
 the sake of preserving all its beauties and wonders un- 
 spoiled by greedy and short-sighted vandalism. What 
 has been actually accomplished in the Yellowstone Park 
 affords the best possible object-lesson as to the desirability 
 . and practicability of establishing such wilderness re- 
 serves. This reserve is a natural breeding-ground and 
 nursery for those stately and beautiful haunters of the 
 wilds which have now vanished from so many of the great 
 forests, the vast lonely plains, and the high mountain 
 ranges, where they once abounded. 
 
 On April 8, 1903, John Burroughs and I reached the 
 Yellowstone Park, and were met by Major John Pitcher 
 of the Regular Army, the Superintendent of the Park. 
 The Major and I forthwith took horses; he telling me 
 that he could show me a good deal of game while riding 
 up to his house at the Mammoth Hot Springs. Hardly 
 
294 
 
 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 had we left the little town of Gardiner and gotten within 
 the limits of the Park before we saw prongbuck. There 
 was a band of at least a hundred feeding some distance 
 from the road. We rode leisurely toward them. They 
 were tame compared to their kindred in unprotected 
 places ; that is, it was easy to ride within fair rifle range 
 of them ; and though they were not familiar in the sense 
 that we afterwards found the bighorn and the deer to 
 be familiar, it was extraordinary to find them showing 
 such familiarity almost literally in the streets of a fron- 
 tier town. It spoke volumes for the good sense and 
 law-abiding spirit of the people of the town. During 
 the two hours following my entry into the Park we rode 
 around the plains and lower slopes of the foothills in 
 the neighborhood of the mouth of the Gardiner and 
 we saw several hundred — probably a thousand all told 
 — of these antelopes. Major Pitcher informed me that 
 all the pronghorns in the Park wintered in this neigh- 
 borhood. Toward the end of April or the first of May 
 they migrate back to their summering homes in the 
 open valleys along the Yellowstone and in the plains 
 south of the Golden Gate. While migrating they go 
 over the mountains and through forests if occasion de- 
 mands. Although there are plenty of coyotes in the Park, 
 there are no big wolves, and save for very infrequent 
 poachers the only enemy of the antelope, as indeed the 
 only enemy of all the game, is the cougar. 
 
 Cougars, known in the Park, as elsewhere through the 
 West, as "mountain lioiis," are plentiful, having increased 
 in numbers of recent years. Except in the neighborhood 
 
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WILDERNESS RESERVES 295 
 
 of the Gardiner River, that is within a few miles of Mam- 
 moth Hot Springs, I found them feeding on elk, which 
 in the Park far outnumber all other game put together, 
 being so numerous that the ravages of the cougars are of 
 no real damage to the herds. But in the neighborhood 
 of the Mammoth Hot Springs the cougars are noxious 
 because of the antelope, mountain sheep, and deer which 
 they kill; and the Superintendent has imported some 
 hounds with which to hunt them. These hounds are 
 managed by Bufifalo Jones, a famous old plainsman, who 
 is now in the Park taking care of the buflfalo. On this 
 first day of my visit to the Park I came across the car- 
 casses of a deer and of an antelope which the cougars had 
 killed. On the great plains cougars rarely get antelope, 
 but here the country is broken so that the big cats can 
 make their stalks under favorable circumstances. To 
 deer and mountain sheep the cougar is a most dangerous 
 enemy — much more so than the wolf. 
 
 The antelope we saw were usually in bands of from 
 twenty to one hundred and fifty, and they travelled strung 
 out almost in single file, though those in the rear would 
 sometimes bunch up. I did not try to stalk them, but 
 got as near them as I could on horseback. The closest 
 approach I was able to make was to within about eighty 
 yards of two which were by themselves — I think a doe 
 and a last year's fawn. As I was riding up to them, 
 although they looked suspiciously at me, one actually lay 
 down. When I was passing them at about eighty yards' 
 distance the big one became nervous, gave a sudden jump, 
 and away the two went at full speed. 
 
296 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 Why the prongbucks were so comparatively shy I 
 do not know, for right on the ground with them we came 
 upon deer, and, in the immediate neighborhood, moun- 
 tain sheep, which were absurdly tame. The mountain 
 sheep were nineteen in number, for the most part does 
 and yearlings with a couple of three-year-old rams, but 
 not a single big fellow — for the big fellows at this sea- 
 son are ofif by themselves, singly or in little bunches, high 
 up in the mountains. The band I saw was tame to a 
 degree matched by but few domestic animals. 
 
 They were feeding on the brink of a steep washout 
 at the upper edge of one of the benches on the moun- 
 tain-side just below where the abrupt slope began. They 
 were alongside a little gully with sheer walls. I rode 
 my horse to within forty yards of them, one of them occa- 
 sionally looking up and at once continuing to feed. Then 
 they moved slowly off and leisurely crossed the gully to 
 the other side. I dismounted, walked around the head 
 of the gully, and moving cautiously, but in plain sight, 
 came closer and closer until I was within twenty yards, 
 when I sat down on a stone and spent certainly twenty 
 minutes looking at them. They paid hardly any atten- 
 tion to my presence — certainly no more than well-treated 
 domestic creatures would pay. One of the rams rose on 
 his hind legs, leaning his fore-hoofs against a little pine 
 tree, and browsed the ends of the budding branches. The 
 others grazed on the short grass and herbage or lay down 
 and rested — two of the yearlings several times playfully 
 butting at one another. Now and then one would glance 
 in my direction without the slightest sign of fear — ^barely 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 297 
 
 even of curiosity. I have no question whatever but that 
 with a little patience this particular band could be made 
 to feed out of a man's hand. Major Pitcher intends 
 during the coming winter to feed them alfalfa — for game 
 animals of several kinds have become so plentiful in the 
 neighborhood of the Hot Springs, and the Major has 
 grown so interested in them, that he wishes to do some- 
 thing toward feeding them during the severe weather. 
 After I had looked at the sheep to my heart's content, 
 I walked back to my horse, my departure arousing as 
 little interest as my advent. 
 
 Soon after leaving them, we began to come across 
 blacktail deer, singly, in twos and threes, and in small 
 bunches of a dozen or so. They were almost as tame 
 as the mountain sheep, but not quite. That is, they al- 
 ways looked alertly at me, and though if I stayed still 
 they would graze, they kept a watch over my movements 
 and usually moved slowly off when I got within less than 
 forty yards of them. Up to that distance, whether on 
 foot or on horseback, they paid but little heed to me, and 
 on several occasions they allowed me to come much 
 closer. Like the bighorn, the blacktails at this time were 
 grazing, not browsing; but I occasionally saw them nib- 
 ble some willow buds. During the winter they had been 
 browsing. As we got close to the Hot Springs we came 
 across several whitetail in an open, marshy meadow. 
 They were not quite as tame as the blacktail, although 
 without any difficulty I walked up to within fifty yards 
 of them. Handsome though the blacktail is, the white- 
 tail is the most beautiful of all deer when in motion,' 
 
298 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 because of the springy, bounding grace of its trot and 
 canter, and the way it carries its head and white flag 
 aloft. 
 
 Before reaching the Mammoth Hot Springs we also 
 saw a number of ducks in the little pools and on the 
 Gardiner. Some of them were rather shy. Others — 
 probably those which, as Major Pitcher informed me, 
 had spent the winter there — ^were as tame as barn-yard 
 fowls. 
 
 Just before reaching the post the Major took me into 
 the big field where Buffalo Jones had some Texas and 
 Flathead Lake buffalo — bulls and cows — ^which he was 
 tending with solicitous care. The original stock of buf- 
 falo in the Park have now been reduced to fifteen or 
 twenty individuals, and their blood is being recruited by 
 the addition of buffalo purchased out of the Flathead 
 Lake and Texas Panhandle herds. The buffalo were at 
 first put within a wire fence, which, when it was built, 
 was found to have included both blacktail and whitetail 
 deer. A bull elk was also put in with them at one time, 
 he having met with some accident which made the Major 
 and Buffalo Jones bring him in to doctor him. When 
 he recovered his health he became very cross. Not only 
 would he attack men, but also buffalo, even the old and 
 surly master bull, thumping them savagely with his ant- 
 lers if they did anything to which he objected. The 
 buffalo are now breeding well. 
 
 When I reached the post and dismounted at the Ma- 
 jor's house, I supposed my experiences with wild beasts 
 were ended for the day; but this was an error. The 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 299 
 
 quarters of the officers and men and the various hotel 
 buildings, stables, residences of the civilian officials, etc., 
 almost completely surround the big parade-ground at 
 the post, near the middle of which stands the flag-pole, 
 while the gun used for morning and evening salutes is 
 well off to one side. There are large gaps between some 
 of the buildings, and Major Pitcher informed me that 
 throughout the winter he had been leaving alfalfa on the 
 parade-grounds, and that numbers of blacktail deer had 
 been in the habit of visiting it every day, sometimes as 
 many as seventy being on the parade-ground at once. 
 As spring-time came on the numbers diminished. How- 
 ever, in mid-afternoon, while I was writing in my room 
 in Major Pitcher's house, on looking out of the win- 
 dow I saw five deer on the parade-ground. They were 
 as tame as so many Alderney cows, and when I walked 
 out I got within twenty yards of them without any dif- 
 ficulty. It was most amusing to see them as the time 
 approached for the sunset gun to be fired. The notes of 
 the trumpeter attracted their attention at once. They 
 all looked at him eagerly. One of them resumed feeding, 
 and paid no attention whatever either to the bugle, the 
 gun or the flag. The other four, however, watched the 
 preparations for firing the gun with an intent gaze, and 
 at the sound of the report gave two or three jumps; then 
 instantly wheeling, looked up at the flag as it came down. 
 This they seemed to regard as something rather more sus- 
 picious than the gun, and they remained very much on 
 the alert until the ceremony was over. Once it was fin- 
 ished, they resumed feeding as if nothing had happened. 
 
300 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 Before it was dark they trotted away from the parade- 
 ground back to the mountains. 
 
 The next day we rode off to the Yellowstone River, 
 camping some miles below Cottonwood Creek. It was 
 a very pleasant camp. Major Pitcher, an old friend, had 
 a first-class pack-train, so that we were as comfortable 
 as possible, and on such a trip there could be no pleasanter 
 or more interesting companion than John Burroughs — 
 " Oom John," as we soon grew to call him. Where 
 our tents were pitched the bottom of the valley was nar- 
 row, the mountains rising steep and cliff-broken on either 
 side. There were quite a number of blacktail in the 
 valley, which were tame and unsuspicious, although not 
 nearly as much so as those in the immediate neighborhood 
 of the Mammoth Hot Springs. One mid-afternoon three 
 of them swam across the river a hundred yards above our 
 camp. But the characteristic animals of the region were 
 the elk — the wapiti. They were certainly more numer- 
 ous than when I was last through the Park twelve years 
 before. 
 
 In the summer the elk spread all over the interior of 
 the Park. As winter approaches they divide, some going 
 north and others south. The southern bands, which, at 
 a guess, may possibly include ten thousand individuals, 
 winter out of the Park, for the most part in Jackson's 
 Hole — though of course here and there within the limits 
 of the Park a few elk may spend both winter and summer 
 in an unusually favorable location. It was the members 
 of the northern band that I met. During the winter time 
 they are nearly stationary, each band staying within a very 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 301 
 
 few miles of the same place, and from their size and the 
 open nature of their habitat it is almost as easy to count 
 them as if they were cattle. From a spur of Bison Peak 
 one day, Major Pitcher, the guide Elwood Hofer, John 
 Burroughs and I spent about four hours with the glasses 
 counting and estimating the different herds within sight. 
 After most careful work and cautious reduction of esti- 
 mates in each case to the minimum the truth would per- 
 mit, we reckoned three thousand head of elk, all lying 
 or feeding and all in sight at the same time. An estimate 
 of some fifteen thousand for the number of elk in these 
 Northern bands cannot be far wrong. These bands do 
 not go out of the Park at all, but winter just within its 
 northern boundary. At the time when we saw them, the 
 snow had vanished from the bottoms of the valleys and 
 the lower slopes of the mountains, but remained as con- 
 tinuous sheets farther up their sides. The elk were for 
 the most part found up on the snow slopes, occasionally 
 singly or in small gangs — more often in bands of from 
 fifty to a couple of hundred. The larger bulls were high- 
 est up the mountains and generally in small troops by 
 themselves, although occasionally one or two would be 
 found associating with a big herd of cows, yearlings, and 
 two-year-olds. Many of the bulls had shed their antlers ; 
 many had not. During the winter the elk had evidently 
 done much browsing, but at this time they were grazing 
 almost exclusively, and seemed by preference to seek out 
 the patches of old grass which were last left bare by the 
 retreating snow. The bands moved about very little, and 
 if one were seen one day it was generally possible to find 
 
302 
 
 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 it within a few hundred yards of the same spot the next 
 day, and certainly not more than a mile or two off. There 
 were severe frosts at night, and occasionally light flurries 
 of snow ; but the hardy beasts evidently cared nothing for 
 any but heavy storms, and seemed to prefer to lie in the 
 snow rather than upon the open ground. They fed at 
 irregular hours throughout the day, just like cattle; one 
 band might be lying down while another was feeding. 
 While travelling they usually went almost in single file. 
 Evidently the winter had weakened them, and they were 
 not in condition for running ; for on the one or two occa- 
 sions when I wanted to see them close up I ran right into 
 them on horseback, both on level plains and going up 
 hill along the sides of rather steep mountains. One band 
 in particular I practically rounded up for John Bur- 
 roughs, finally getting them to stand in a huddle while 
 he and I sat on our horses less than fifty yards off. After 
 they had run a little distance they opened their mouths 
 wide and showed evident signs of distress. 
 
 We came across a good many carcasses. Two, a bull 
 and a cow, had died from scab. Over half the remainder 
 had evidently perished from cold or starvation. The 
 others, including a bull, three cows and a score of year- 
 lings, had been killed by cougars. In the Park the cou- 
 gar is at present their only animal foe. The cougars 
 were preying on nothing but elk in the Yellowstone Val- 
 ley, and kept hanging about the neighborhood of the big 
 bands. Evidently they usually selected some outlying 
 yearling, stalked it as it lay or as it fed, and seized it 
 by the head and throat. The bull which they killed was 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 303 
 
 in a little open valley by himself, many miles from any 
 other elk. The cougar which killed it, judging from its 
 tracks, was a big male. As the elk were evidently rather 
 too numerous for the feed, I do not think the cougars 
 were doing any damage. 
 
 Coyotes are plentiful, but the elk evidently have no 
 dread of them. One day I crawled up to within fifty 
 yards of a band of elk lying down. A coyote was walking 
 about among them, and beyond an occasional look they 
 paid no heed to him. He did not venture to go within 
 fifteen or twenty paces of any one of them. In fact, ex- 
 cept the cougar, I saw but one living thing attempt to 
 molest the elk. This was a golden eagle. We saw sev- 
 eral of these, great birds. On one occasion we had ridden 
 out to the foot of a sloping mountain side, dotted over 
 with bands and strings of elk amounting in the aggre- 
 gate probably to a thousand head. Most of the bands 
 were above the snow-line — some appearing away back 
 toward the ridge crests, and looking as small as mice. 
 There was one band well below the snow-line, and tow- 
 ard this we rode. While the elk were not shy or wary, 
 in the sense that a hunter would use the words, they were 
 by no means as familiar as the deer; and this particular 
 band of elk, some twenty or thirty in all, watched us 
 with interest as we approached. When we were still half 
 a mile ofJ they suddenly started to run toward us, evi- 
 dently frightened by something. They ran quartering, 
 and when about four hundred yards away we saw that 
 an eagle was after them. Soon it swooped, and a year- 
 ling in the rear, weakly, and probably frightened by the 
 
304 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 swoop, turned a complete somersault, and when it re- 
 covered its feet stood still. The great bird followed the 
 rest of the band across a little ridge, beyond which they 
 disappeared. Then it returned, soaring high in the heav- 
 ens, and after two or three wide circles, swooped down 
 at the solitary yearling, its legs hanging down. We 
 halted at two hundred yards to see the end. But the eagle 
 could not quite make up its mind to attack. Twice it 
 hovered within a foot or two of the yearling's head, 
 again fiew off and again returned. Finally the yearling 
 trotted off after the rest of the band, and the eagle re- 
 turned to the upper air. Later we found the carcass of 
 a yearling, with two eagles, not to mention ravens and 
 magpies, feeding on it; but I could not tell whether they 
 had themselves killed the yearling or not. 
 
 Here and there in the region where the elk were abun- 
 dant we came upon horses, which for some reason had 
 been left out through the winter. They were much 
 wilder than the elk. Evidently the Yellowstone Park is 
 a natural nursery and breeding-ground of the elk, which 
 here, as said above, far outnumber all the other game put 
 together. In the winter, if they cannot get to open water, 
 they eat snow ; but in several places where there had been 
 springs which kept open all winter, we could see by the 
 tracks that they had been regularly used by bands of elk. 
 The men working at the new road along the face of the 
 cliffs beside the Yellowstone River near Tover Falls 
 informed me that in October enormous droves of elk 
 coming from the interior of the Park and travelling 
 northward to the lower lands had crossed the Yellow- 
 
ELK IN SNOW 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 305 
 
 stone just above Tower Falls. Judging by their descrip- 
 tion, the elk had crossed by thousands in an uninter- 
 rupted stream, the passage taking many hours. In fact 
 nowadays these Yellowstone elk are, with the exception 
 of the Arctic caribou, the only American game which 
 at times travel in immense droves like the buffalo of the 
 old days. 
 
 A couple of days after leaving Cottonwood Creek — 
 where we had spent several days — ^we camped at the Yel- 
 lowstone Canyon below Tower Falls. Here we saw a 
 second band of mountain sheep, numbering only eight — 
 none of them old rams. We were camped on the west 
 side of the canyon; the sheep had their abode on the op- 
 posite side, where they had spent the winter. It has 
 recently been customary among some authorities, espe- 
 cially the English hunters and naturalists who have 
 written of the Asiatic sheep, to speak as if sheep were 
 naturally creatures of the plains rather than mountain 
 climbers. I know nothing of the Old World sheep, but 
 the Rocky Mountain bighorn is to the full as character- 
 istic a mountain animal, in every sense of the word, as 
 the chamois, and, I think, as the ibex. These sheep 
 were well known to the road builders, who had spent the 
 winter in the locality. They told me they never went 
 back on the plains, but throughout the winter had spent 
 their days and nights on the top of the cliff and along 
 its face. This cliff was an alternation of sheer precipices 
 and very steep inclines. When coated with ice it would 
 be difficult to imagine an uglier bit of climbing; but 
 throughout the winter, and even in the wildest storms, 
 
3o6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the sheep had habitually gone down it to drink at the 
 water below. When we first saw them they were lying 
 sunning themselves on the edge of the canyon, where the 
 rolling grassy country behind it broke off into the sheer 
 descent. It was mid-afternoon and they were under some 
 pines. After a while they got up and began to graze, 
 and soon hopped unconcernedly down the side of the cliff 
 until they were half-way to the bottom. They then 
 grazed along the sides, and spent some time licking at 
 a place where there was evidently a mineral deposit. Be- 
 fore dark they all lay down again on a steeply inclined 
 jutting spur midway between the top and bottom of the 
 canyon. 
 
 Next morning I thought I would like to see them 
 close up, so I walked down three or four miles below 
 where the canyon ended, crossed the stream, and came up 
 the other side until I got on what was literally the stamp- 
 ing-ground of the sheep. Their tracks showed that they 
 had spent their time for many weeks, and probably for 
 all the winter, within a very narrow radius. For perhaps 
 a mile and a half, or two miles at the very outside, they 
 had wandered to and fro on the summit of the canyon, 
 making what was almost a well-beaten path; always very 
 near and usually on the edge of the cliff, and hardly ever 
 going more than a few yards back into the grassy plain- 
 and-hill country. Their tracks and dung covered the 
 ground. They had also evidently descended into the 
 depths of the canyon wherever there was the slightest 
 break or even lowering in the upper line of the basalt 
 cliffs. Although mountain sheep often browse in winter, 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 307 
 
 I saw but few traces of browsing here; probably on the 
 sheer cliff side they always get some grazing. 
 
 When I spied the band they were lying not far from 
 the spot in which they had lain the day before, and in 
 the same position on the brink of the canyon. They saw 
 me and watched me with interest when I was two hun- 
 dred yards off, but they let me get up within forty yards 
 and sit down on a large stone to look at them, without 
 running off. Most of them were lying down, but a cou- 
 ple were feeding steadily throughout the time I watched 
 them. Suddenly one took the alarm and dashed straight 
 over the cliff, the others all following at once. I ran 
 after them to the edge in time to see the last yearling 
 drop off the edge of the basalt cliff and stop short on the 
 sheer slope below, while the stones dislodged by his hoofs 
 rattled down the canyon. They all looked up at me with 
 great interest, and then strolled oflf to the edge of a jut- 
 ting spur and lay down almost directly underneath me 
 and some fifty yards off. That evening on my return to 
 camp we watched the band make its way right down to 
 the river bed, going over places where it did not seem 
 possible a four-footed creature could pass. They halted 
 to graze here and there, and down the worst places they 
 went very fast with great bounds. It was a marvellous 
 exhibition of climbing. 
 
 After we had finished this horseback trip we went 
 on sleds and skis to the upper Geyser Basin and the Falls 
 of the Yellowstone. Although it was the third week in 
 April, the snow was still several feet deep, and only 
 thoroughly trained snow horses could have taken the 
 
3o8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 sleighs along, while around the Yellowstone Falls it was 
 possible to move only on snowshoes. There was little 
 life in those woods. In the upper basin I caught a 
 meadow mouse on the snow; I afterwards sent it to Hart 
 Merriam, who told me it was of a species he had de- 
 scribed from Idaho, Microtus nanus; it had not been 
 previously found in the Yellowstone region. We saw an 
 occasional pine squirrel, snowshoe rabbit or marten ; and 
 in the open meadows around the hot waters there were 
 Canada geese and ducks of several species, and now and 
 then a coyote. Around camp Clark's crows and Stellar's 
 jays, and occasionally magpies, came to pick at the refuse ; 
 and of course they were accompanied by the whiskey 
 jacks, which behaved with their usual astounding famil- 
 iarity. At Norris Geyser Basin there was a perfect 
 chorus of bird music from robins, western purple finches, 
 juncos and mountain bluebirds. In the woods there were 
 mountain chickadees and pygmy nuthatches, together 
 with an occasional woodpecker. In the northern coun- 
 try we had come across a very few blue grouse and ruffed 
 grouse, both as tame as possible. We had seen a pygmy 
 owl no larger than a robin sitting on the top of a pine in 
 broad daylight, and uttering at short intervals a queer 
 un-owl-like cry. 
 
 The birds that interested us most were the solitaires, 
 and especially the dippers or water-ousels. We were 
 fortunate enough to hear the solitaires sing not only when 
 perched on trees, but on the wing, soaring over a great 
 canyon. They are striking birds in every way, and their 
 habit of singing while soaring, and their song, are alike 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 309 
 
 noteworthy. Once I heard a solitaire singing at the top 
 of a canyon, and an ousel also singing but a thousand feet 
 below him; and in this case I thought the ousel sang 
 better than his unconscious rival. The ousels are to my 
 mind wellnigh the most attractive of all our birds, be- 
 cause of their song, their extraordinary habits, their 
 whole personality. They stay through the winter in the 
 Yellowstone because the waters are in many places open. 
 We heard them singing cheerfully, their ringing melody 
 having a certain suggestion of the winter wren's. Usually 
 they sang while perched on some rock on the edge or 
 in the middle of the stream ; but sometimes on the wing ; 
 and often just before dipping under the torrent, or just 
 after slipping out from it onto some ledge of rock or 
 ice. In the open places the Western meadow lark was 
 uttering its beautiful song; a real song as compared to 
 the plaintive notes of its Eastern brother, and though 
 short, yet with continuity and tune as well as melody. I 
 love to hear the Eastern meadow lark in the early spring; 
 but I love still more the song of the Western meadow 
 lark. No bird escaped John Burroughs' eye; no bird 
 note escaped his ear. 
 
 I cannot understand why the Old World ousel should 
 have received such comparatively scant attention in the 
 books, whether from nature writers or poets; whereas 
 our ousel has greatly impressed all who know him. John 
 Muir's description comes nearest doing him justice. To 
 me he seems a more striking bird than for instance the 
 skylark; though of course I not only admire but am very 
 fond of the skylark. There are various pipits and larks 
 
3IO AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 in our own country which sing in highest air, as does 
 the skylark, and their songs, though not as loud, are 
 almost as sustained; and though they lack the finer kind 
 of melody, so does his. The ousel, on the contrary, is a 
 really brilliant singer, and in his habits he is even farther 
 removed from the commonplace and the uninteresting 
 than the lark himself. Some birds, such as the ousel, 
 the mocking-bird, the solitaire, show marked originality, 
 marked distinction; others do not; the chipping sparrow, 
 for instance, while in no way objectionable (like the im- 
 ported house sparrqw) , is yet a hopelessly commonplace 
 little bird alike in looks, habits and voice. 
 
 On the last day of my stay it was arranged that I 
 should ride down from Mammoth Hot Springs to the 
 town of Gardiner, just outside the Park limits, and there 
 make an address at the laying of the corner-stone of the 
 arch by which the main road is to enter the Park. Some 
 three thousand people had gathered to attend the cere- 
 monies. A little over a mile from Gardiner we came 
 down out of the hills to the flat plain ; from the hills we 
 could see the crowd gathered around the arch waiting 
 for me to come. We put spurs to our horses and cantered 
 rapidly toward the appointed place, and on the way we 
 passed within forty yards of a score of blacktails, which 
 merely moved to one side and looked at us, and within 
 almost as short a distance of half a dozen antelope. To 
 any lover of nature it could not help being a delightful 
 thing to see the wild and timid creatures of the wilderness 
 rendered so tame; and their tameness in the immediate 
 neighborhood of Gardiner, on the very edge of the Park, 
 
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 en 
 
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WILDERNESS RESERVES 311 
 
 spoke volumes for the patriotic good sense of the citizens 
 of Montana. At times the antelope actually cross the 
 Park line to Gardiner, which is just outside, and feed 
 unmolested in the very streets of the town; a fact which 
 shows how very far advanced the citizens of Gardiner 
 are in right feeling on this subject; for of course the 
 Federal laws cease to protect the antelope as soon as they 
 are out of the Park. Major Pitcher informed me that 
 both the Montana and Wyoming people were cooperat- 
 ing with him in zealous fashion to preserve the game 
 and put a stop to poaching. For their attitude in this 
 regard they deserve the cordial thanks of all Americans 
 interested in these great popular playgrounds, where 
 bits of the old wilderness scenery and the old wilderness 
 life are to be kept unspoiled for the benefit of our chil- 
 dren's children. Eastern people, and especially Eastern 
 sportsmen, need to keep steadily in mind the fact that the 
 westerners who live in the neighborhood, of the forest 
 preserves are the men who in the last resort will deter- 
 mine whether or not these preserves are to be permanent. 
 They cannot in the long run be kept as forest and game 
 reservations unless the settlers roundabout believe in 
 them and heartily support them; and the rights of these 
 settlers must be carefully safeguarded, and they must be 
 shown that the movement is really in their interest. The 
 Eastern sportsman who fails to recognize these facts can 
 do little but harm by advocacy of forest reserves. 
 
 It was in the interior of the Park, at the hotels beside 
 the lake, the falls, and the various geyser basins, that 
 we would have seen the bears had the season been late 
 
312 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 enough; but unfortunately the bears were still for the 
 most part hibernating. We saw two or three tracks, but 
 the animals themselves had not yet begun to come about 
 the hotels. Nor were the hotels open. No visitors had 
 previously entered the Park in the winter or early spring, 
 the scouts and other employees being the only ones who 
 occasionally traverse it. I was sorry not to see the bears, 
 for the effect of protection upon bear life in the Yellow- 
 stone has been one of the phenomena of natural history. 
 Not only have they grown to realize that they are safe, 
 but, being natural scavengers and foul feeders, they have 
 come to recognize the garbage heaps of the hotels as their 
 special sources of food supply. Throughout the summer 
 months they come to all the hotels in numbers, usually 
 appearing in the late afternoon or evening, and they have 
 become as indifferent to the presence of men as the deer 
 themselves — some of them very much more indifferent. 
 They have now taken their place among the recognized 
 sights of the Park, and the tourists are nearly as much 
 interested in them as in the geysers. In mussing over 
 the garbage heaps they sometimes get tin cans stuck on 
 their paws, and the result is painful. Buffalo Jones and 
 some of the other scouts in extreme cases rope the bear, 
 tie him up, cut the tin can ofif his paw, and let him go 
 again. It is not an easy feat, but the astonishing thing 
 is that it should be performed at all. 
 
 It was amusing to read the proclamations addressed 
 to the tourists by the Park management, in which they 
 were solemnly warned that the bears were really wild 
 animals, and that they must on no account be either fed 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 313 
 
 or teased. It is curious to think that the descendants of 
 the great grizzlies which were the dread of the early ex- 
 plorers and hunters should now be semi-domesticated 
 creatures, boldly hanging around crowded hotels for the 
 sake of what they can pick up, and quite harmless so long 
 as any reasonable precaution is exercised. They are 
 much safer, for instance, than any ordinary bull or stall- 
 ion, or even ram, and, in fact, there is no danger from 
 them at all unless they are encouraged to grow too famil- 
 iar or are in some way molested. Of course among the 
 thousands of tourists there is a percentage of fools; and 
 when fools go out in the afternoon to look at the bears 
 feeding they occasionally bring themselves into jeopardy 
 by some senseless act. The black bears and the cubs of 
 the bigger bears can readily be driven up trees, and some 
 of the tourists occasionally do this. Most of the animals 
 never think of resenting it ; but now and then one is run 
 across which has its feelings ruffled by the performance. 
 In the summer of 1902 the result proved disastrous to a 
 too inquisitive tourist. He was travelling with his wife, 
 and at one of the hotels they went out toward the garbage 
 pile to see the bears feeding. The only bear in sight was 
 a large she, which, as it turned out, was in a bad temper 
 because another party of tourists a few minutes before 
 had been chasing her cubs up a tree. The man left his 
 wife and walked toward the bear to see how close he 
 could get. When he was some distance off she charged 
 him, whereupon he bolted back toward his wife. The 
 bear overtook him, knocked him down and bit him se- 
 verely. But the man's wife, without hesitation, attacked 
 
314 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the bear with that thoroughly feminine weapon, an um- 
 brella, and frightened her off. The man spent several 
 weeks in the Park hospital before he recovered. Per- 
 haps the following telegram sent by the manager of the 
 Lake Hotel to Major Pitcher illustrates with sufficient 
 clearness the mutual relations of the bears, the tourists, 
 and the guardians of the public weal in the Park. The 
 original was sent me by Major Pitcher. It runs : 
 
 "Lake. 7-27- '03. Major Pitcher, Yellowstone: As 
 many as seventeen bears in an evening appear on my 
 garbage dump. To-night eight or ten. Campers and 
 people not of my hotel throw things at them to make them 
 run away. I cannot, unless there personally, control this. 
 Do you think you could detail a trooper to be there 
 every evening from say six o'clock until dark and make 
 people remain behind danger line laid out by Warden 
 Jones? Otherwise I fear some accident. The arrest 
 of one or two of these campers might help. My own 
 guests do pretty well as they are told. James Barton 
 Key. 9 A. M." 
 
 Major Pitcher issued the order as requested. 
 
 At times the bears get so bold that they take to mak- 
 ing inroads on the kitchen. One completely terrorized a 
 Chinese cook. It would drive him off and then feast 
 upon whatever was left behind. When a bear begins to 
 act in this way or to show surliness it is sometimes neces- 
 sary to shoot it. Other bears are tamed until they will 
 feed out of the hand, and will come at once if called. Not 
 only have some of the soldiers and scouts tamed bears in 
 this fashion, but occasionally a chambermaid or waiter 
 
GRIZZLY BEAR AND COOK 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 315 
 
 girl at one of the hotels has thus developed a bear as 
 a pet. 
 
 The accompanying photographs not only show bears 
 very close up, with men standing by within a few yards 
 of them, but they also show one bear being fed from the 
 piazza by a cook, and another standing beside a particular 
 friend, a chambermaid in one of the hotels. In these 
 photographs it will be seen that sonie are grizzlies and 
 some black bears. 
 
 This whole episode of bear life in the Yellowstone is 
 so extraordinary that it will be well worth while for any 
 man who has the right powers and enough time, to make 
 a complete study of the life and history of the Yellow- 
 stone bears. Indeed, nothing better could be done by 
 some of our out-door faunal naturalists than to spend at 
 least a year in the Yellowstone, and to study the life 
 habits of all the wild creatures therein. A man able to 
 do this, and to write down accurately and interestingly 
 what he had seen, would make a contribution of perma- 
 nent value to our nature literature. 
 
 In May, after leaving the Yellowstone, I visited the 
 Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and then went through 
 the Yosemite Park with John Muir — the companion 
 above all others for such a trip. It is hard to make com- 
 parisons among different kinds of scenery, all of them 
 very grand and very beautiful ; but nothing that I have 
 ever seen has impressed me quite as much as the desolate 
 and awful sublimity of the Grand Canyon of the Colo- 
 rado. I earnestly wish that Congress would make it a 
 national park, and I am sure that such course would meet 
 
3i6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the approbation of the people of Arizona. The people 
 of California with wise and generous forethought have 
 given the Yosemite Valley to the National Government 
 to be kept as a national park, just as the surrounding 
 country, including some of the groves of giant trees, has 
 been kept. The flower-clad slopes, of the Sierras — golden 
 with the blazing poppy, brilliant with lilies and tulips 
 and red-stemmed Manzinita bush — are unlike anything 
 else in this country. As for the giant trees, no words 
 can describe their majesty and beauty. 
 
 John Muir and I, with two packers and three pack 
 mules, spent a delightful three days in the Yosemite. 
 The first night was clear, and we lay in the open, on beds 
 of soft fir boughs, among the huge, cinnamon-colored 
 trunks of the sequoias. It was like lying in a great sol- 
 emn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any 
 built by hand of man. Just at nightfall I heard, among 
 other birds, thrushes which I think were Rocky Moun- 
 tain hermits — the appropriate choir for such a place of 
 worship. Next day we went by trail through the woods, 
 seeing some deer — ^which were not wild — as well as 
 mountain quail and blue grouse. Among the birds which 
 we saw was a white-headed woodpecker; the interesting 
 carpenter woodpeckers were less numerous than lower 
 down. In the afternoon we struck snow, and had con- 
 siderable difficulty in breaking our trails. A snow-storm 
 came on toward evening, but we kept warm and com- 
 fortable in a grove of splendid silver firs — rightly named 
 " magnificent " — near the brink of the wonderful Yosem- 
 ite Valley. Next day we clambered down into it and 
 
THE BEAR AND THE CHAMBERMAID 
 
WILDERNESS RESERVES 317 
 
 at nightfall camped in its bottom, facing the giant cliffs 
 over which the waterfalls thundered. 
 
 Surely our people do not understand even yet the rich 
 heritage that is theirs. There can be nothing in the 
 world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of 
 giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, 
 the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and 
 our people should see to it that they are preserved for 
 their children and their children's children forever, with 
 their majestic beauty all unmarred. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 BOOKS ON BIG GAME 
 
 The nineteenth century was, beyond all others, the 
 century of big game hunters, and of books about big 
 game. From the days of Nimrod to our own there have 
 been mighty hunters before the Lord, and most warlike 
 and masterful races have taken kindly to the chase, as 
 chief among those rough pastimes which appeal naturally 
 to men with plenty of red blood in their veins. But until 
 the nineteenth century the difficulties of travel were so 
 great that men of our race with a taste for sport could 
 rarely gratify this taste except in their own neighborhood. 
 The earlier among the great conquering kings of Egypt 
 and Assyria, when they made their forays into Syria and 
 the region of the Upper Euphrates, hunted the elephant 
 and the wild bull, as well as the lions with which the 
 country swarmed; and Tiglath-Pileser the First, as over- 
 lord of Phoenicia, embarked on the Mediterranean, and 
 there killed a " sea-monster," presumably a whale — a feat 
 which has been paralleled by no sport-loving sovereign 
 of modern times, save by that stout hunter, the German 
 Kaiser; though I believe the present English King, like 
 several members of his family, has slain both elephants 
 and tigers before he came to the throne. But the ele- 
 
 318 
 
BOOKS ON BIG GAME 319 
 
 phant disappeared from Eastern Asia a thousand years 
 before our era ; and the lion had become rare or unknown 
 in lands where the dwellers were of European stock, long 
 before the days of written records. 
 
 There was good hunting in Macedonia in the days of 
 Alexander the Great; there was good hunting in the Her- 
 cynian Forest when Frank and Bergund were turning 
 Gaul into France; there was good^hunting in Lithuania 
 and Poland as late as the days of Sobieski; but the most 
 famous kings and nobles of Europe, within historic times, 
 though they might kill the aurochs and the bison, the bear 
 and the boar, had no chance to test their prowess against 
 the mightier and more terrible beasts of the tropics. 
 
 No modern man could be more devoted to the chase 
 than were the territorial lords of the Middle Ages. 
 Two of the most famous books of the chase ever written 
 were the Livre de Chasse of Count Gaston de Foix — 
 Gaston Phoebus, well known to all readers of Froissart 
 — and the translation or adaptation and continuation 
 of the same, the " Master of Game," by that Duke of 
 York who " died victorious " at Agincourt. Mr. Baillie- 
 Grohman, himself a hunter and mountaineer of wide 
 experience, a trained writer and observer, and a close 
 student of the hunting lore of the past, has edited and 
 reproduced the " Master of Game," in form which makes 
 it a delight to every true lover of books no less than to 
 every true lover of sport. A very interesting little book 
 is Glamorgan's Chasse du Loup, dedicated to Charles the 
 Ninth of France; my copy is of the edition of 1566. The 
 text and the illustrations are almost equally attractive. 
 
320 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 As the centuries passed it became more and more diffi- 
 cult to obtain sport in the thickly settled parts of Europe 
 save in the vast game preserves of the Kings and great 
 lords. These magnates of Continental Europe, dovs^n to 
 the beginning of the last century, followed the chase 
 w^ith all the ardor of Gaston Phoebus ; indeed, they erred 
 generally on the side of fantastic extravagance and exag- 
 geration in their favorite pursuit, turning it into a solemn 
 and rather ridiculous business instead of a healthy and 
 vigorous pastime ; but they could hunt only the beasts of 
 their own forests. The men who went on long voyages 
 usually had quite enough to do simply as travellers ; the 
 occupation of getting into unknown lands, and of keeping 
 alive when once in them, was in itself sufficiently absorb- 
 ing and hazardous to exclude any chance of combining 
 with it the role of sportsman. 
 
 With the last century all this had changed. Even in 
 the eighteenth century it began to change. The Dutch 
 settlers at the Cape of Good Hope, and the English set- 
 tlers on the Atlantic coast of North America, found them- 
 selves thrown back into a stage of life where hunting was 
 one of the main means of livelihood, as well as the most 
 exciting and adventurous of pastimes. These men knew 
 the chase as men of their race had not known it since the 
 days before history dawned ; and until the closing decades 
 of the last century the Americans and the Afrikanders of 
 the frontier largely led the lives of professional hunters. 
 Oom Paul and Buffalo Bill led very different careers 
 after they reached middle age ; but in their youth warfare 
 against wild beasts and wild men was the most serious 
 
BOOKS ON BIG GAME 321 
 
 part of the life-work of both. They and their fellows 
 did the rough pioneer work of civilization, under condi- 
 tions which have now vanished for ever, and their type 
 will perish with the passing of the forces that called it 
 into being. But the big game hunter, whose campaigns 
 against big game are not simply incidents in his career as 
 a pioneer settler, will remain with us for some time 
 longer; and it is of him and his writings that we wish 
 to treat. 
 
 Toward the end of the eighteenth century this big 
 game hunter had already appeared, although, like all 
 early types, he was not yet thoroughly specialized. Le 
 Vaillant hunted in South Africa, and his volumes are ex- 
 cellent reading now. A still better book is that of Bruce, 
 the Abyssinian explorer, who was a kind of Burton of his 
 days, with a marvellous faculty for getting into quarrels, 
 but an even more marvellous faculty for doing work 
 which no other man could do. He really opened a new 
 world to European men of letters and science; who there- 
 upon promptly united in disbelieving all he said, though 
 they were credulous enough toward people who really 
 should have been distrusted. But his tales have been 
 proved true by many an explorer since then, and his book 
 will always possess interest for big game hunters, because 
 of his experiences in the chase. Sometimes he shot 
 merely in self-defense or for food, but he also made regu- 
 lar hunting trips in company with the wild lords of the 
 shifting frontier between dusky Christian and dusky in- 
 fidel. He feasted in their cane palaces, where the walls 
 were hung with the trophies of giant game, and in their 
 
322 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 company, with horse and spear, he attacked and overcame 
 the buffalo and the rhinoceros. 
 
 By the beginning of the nineteenth century the hunt- 
 ing book proper became differentiated, as it were, from 
 the book of the explorer. One of the earliest was Will- 
 iamson's " Oriental Field Sports." This is to the present 
 day a most satisfactory book, especially to sporting par- 
 ents with large families of small children. The pictures 
 are all in colors, and the foliage is so very green, and the 
 tigers are so very red, and the boars so very black, and 
 the tragedies so uncommonly vivid and startling, that 
 for the youthful mind the book really has no formidable 
 rival outside of the charmed circle where Slovenly Peter 
 stands first. 
 
 Since then multitudes of books have been written 
 about big game hunting. Most of them are bad, of 
 course, just as most novels and most poems are bad; but 
 some of them are very good indeed, while a few are enti- 
 tled to rank high in literature — though it cannot be said 
 that as yet big game hunters as a, whole have produced 
 such writers as those who dwell on the homelier and less 
 grandiose side of nature. They have not produced a 
 White or Burroughs, for instance. What could not Bur- 
 roughs have done if only he had cared for adventure and 
 for the rifle, and had roamed across the Great Plains and 
 the Rockies, and through the dim forests, as he has wan- 
 dered along the banks of the Hudson and the Potomac! 
 Thoreau, it is true, did go to the Maine Woods ; but then 
 Thoreau was a transcendentalist and slightly anaemic. 
 A man must feel the beat of hardy life in his veins before 
 
BOOKS ON BIG GAME 323 
 
 he can be a good big game hunter. Fortunately, Rich- 
 ard Jeffries has written an altogether charming little vol- 
 ume on the Red Deer, so that there is at least one game 
 animal which has been fully described by a man of letters, 
 who was also both a naturalist and a sportsman ; but it is 
 irritating to think that no one has done as much for the 
 lordlier game of the wilderness. Not only should the 
 hunter be able to describe vividly the chase, and the life 
 habits of the quarry, but he should also draw the wilder- 
 ness itself, and the life of those who dwell or sojourn 
 therein. We wish to see before us the cautious stalk and 
 the headlong gallop ; the great beasts as they feed or rest 
 or run or make love or fight; the wild hunting camps; 
 the endless plains shimmering in the sunlight; the vast, 
 solemn forests; the desert and the marsh and the moun- 
 tain chain; and all that lies hidden in the lonely lands 
 through which the wilderness wanderer roams and hunts 
 game. 
 
 But there remain a goodly number of books which are 
 not merely filled with truthful information of impor- 
 tance, but which are also absorbingly interesting ; and if 
 a book is both truthful and interesting it is surely entitled 
 to a place somewhere in general literature. Unfortu- 
 nately, the first requisite bars out a great many hunting 
 books. There are not a few mighty hunters who have 
 left long records of their achievements, and who undoubt- 
 edly did achieve a great de^l, but who contrive to leave 
 in the mind of the reader the uncomfortable suspicion, 
 that besides their prowess with the rifle they were skilled 
 in the use of that more archaic weapon, the long bow. 
 
324 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 " The Old Shekarry," who wrote of Indian and African 
 sport, was one of these. Gerard was a great lion-killer, 
 but some of his accounts of the lives, deaths, and espe- 
 cially the courtships, of lions, bear much less relation to 
 actual facts than do the novels of Dumas. Not a few 
 of the productions of hunters of this type should be 
 grouped under the head-lines used by the newspapers of 
 our native land in describing something which they are 
 perfectly sure hasn't happened — " Important, if True." 
 The exactly opposite type is presented in another French- 
 man, M. Foa, a really great hunter who also knows how 
 to observe and to put down what he has observed. His 
 two books on big game hunting in Africa have permanent 
 value. 
 
 If we were limited to the choice of one big game 
 writer, who was merely such, and not in addition a scien- 
 tific observer, we should have to choose Sir Samuel Baker, 
 for his experiences are very wide, and we caii accept with- 
 out question all that he says in his books. He hunted 
 in India, in Africa, and in North America ; he killed all 
 the chief kinds of heavy and dangerous game; and he 
 followed them on foot and on horseback, with the rifle 
 and the knife, and with hounds. For the same reason, if 
 we could choose but one work, it would have to be the 
 volumes of " Big Game Shooting," in the Badminton 
 Library, edited by Mr. Phillipps Wolley — himself a man 
 who has written well of big game hunting in out-of-the- 
 way places, from the Caucasus to the Cascades. These 
 volumes contain pieces by many different authors; but 
 they differ from most volumes of the kind in that all the 
 
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BOOKS ON BIG GAME 325 
 
 writers are trustworthy and interesting; though the palm 
 must be given to Oswell's delightful account of his South 
 African hunting. The book on the game beasts of Africa 
 edited by Mr. Bryden is admirable in every way. 
 
 In all these books the one point to be insisted on is that 
 a big game hunter has nothing in common with so many 
 of the men who delight to call themselves sportsmen. Sir 
 Samuel Baker has left a very amusing record of the 
 horror he felt for the Ceylon sportsmen who, by the term 
 " sport," meant horse-racing instead of elephant shooting. 
 Half a century ago, Gordon-Cumming wrote of " the life 
 of the wild hunter, so far preferable to that of the mere 
 sportsman " ; and his justification for this somewhat sneer- 
 ing reference to the man who takes his sport in too artifi- 
 cial a manner, may be found in the pages of a then noted 
 authority on such sports as horse-racing and fox-hunting; 
 for in Apperly's " Nimrod Abroad," in the course of an 
 article on the game of the American wilderness, there 
 occurs this delicious sentence : " A damper, however, is 
 thrown over all systems of deer-stalking in Canada by the 
 necessity, which is said to be unavoidable, of bivouacking 
 in the woods instead of in well-aired sheets ! " Verily, 
 there was a great gulf between the two men. 
 
 In the present century the world has known three 
 great hunting-grounds: Africa, from the equator to the 
 southernmost point; India, both farther and hither; and 
 North America west of the Mississippi, from the Rio 
 Grande to the Arctic Circle. The latter never ap- 
 proached either of the former in the wealth and variety 
 of the species, or in the size and terror of the chief beasts 
 
326 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 of the chase ; but it surpassed India in the countless num- 
 bers of the individual animals, and in the wild and un- 
 known nature of the hunting-grounds, while the climate 
 and surroundings made the conditions under which the 
 hunter worked pleasanter and healthier than those in 
 any other land. 
 
 South Africa was the true hunter's paradise. If the 
 happy hunting-grounds were to be found anywhere in 
 this world, they lay between the Orange and the Zambesi, 
 and extended northward here and there to the Nile coun- 
 tries and Somaliland. Nowhere else were there such 
 multitudes of game, representing so many and such widely 
 different kinds of animals, of such size, such beauty, such 
 infinite variety. We should have to go back to the fauna 
 of the Pleistocene to find its equal. Never before did 
 men enjoy such hunting as fell to the lot of those roving 
 adventurers, who first penetrated its hidden fastnesses, 
 camped by its shrunken rivers, and galloped over its sun- 
 scorched wastes; and, alas that it should be written, no 
 man will ever see the like again. Fortunately, its mem- 
 ory will forever be kept alive in some of the books that 
 the great hunters have written about it, such as Cornwallis 
 Harris' " Wild Sports of South Africa," Gordon-Cum- 
 ming's " Hunter's Life in South Africa," Baldwin's 
 " African Hunting," Drummond's " Large Game and 
 Natural History of South Africa," and, best of all, 
 Selous' two books, "A Hunter's Wanderings in South 
 Africa " and " Travel and Adventure in Southeast 
 Africa." Selous was the last of the great hunters of 
 South Africa, and no other has left books of such value 
 
BOOKS ON BIG GAME 327 
 
 as his. In central Africa the game has lasted to our own 
 time; the hunting described by Alfred Neumann and 
 Vaughn Kirby in the closing years of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury was almost as good as any enjoyed by their brothers 
 who fifty years before steered their ox-drawn wagons 
 across the " high veldt " of the south land. 
 
 Moreover, the pencil has done its part as well as the 
 pen. Harris, who was the pioneer of all the hunters, 
 published an admirable illustrated folio entitled " The 
 Game and Wild Animals of South Africa." It is per- 
 haps of more value than any other single work of the kind. 
 J. G. Millais, in "A Breath from the Veldt," has rendered 
 a unique service, not only by his charming descriptions, 
 but by his really extraordinary sketches of the South 
 African antelopes, both at rest, and in every imaginable 
 form of motion. Nearly at the other end of the continent 
 there is an admirable book on lion-hunting in Somali- 
 land, by Captain C. J. Melliss. Much information about 
 big game can be taken from the books of various mission- 
 aries and explorers; Livingstone and Du Chaillu doing 
 for Africa in this respect what Catlin did for North 
 America. 
 
 As we have said before, one great merit of these books 
 is that they are interesting. Quite a number of men who 
 are good sportsmen, as well as men of means, have written 
 books about their experiences in Africa; but the trouble 
 with too many of these short and simple annals of the rich 
 is, that they are very dull. They are not literature, any 
 more than treatises on farriery and cooking are literature. 
 To read a mere itinerary is like reading a guide-book. 
 
328 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 No great enthusiasm in the reader can be roused by such 
 a statement as " this day walked twenty-three miles, shot 
 one giraffe and two zebras ; porter deserted with the load 
 containing the spare boots " ; and the most exciting 
 events, if chronicled simply as " shot three rhinos and two 
 buffalo ; the first rhino and both buffalo charged," become 
 about as thrilling as a paragraph in Baedeker. There 
 is no need of additional literature of the guide-book and 
 cookery-book kind. " Fine writing " is, of course, ab- 
 horrent in a way that is not possible for mere baldness of 
 statement, and would-be " funny " writing is even worse, 
 as it almost invariably denotes an underbred quality of 
 mind ; but there is need of a certain amount of detail, and 
 of vivid and graphic, though simple, description. In 
 other words, the writer on big game should avoid equally 
 Carlyle's theory and Carlyle's practice in the matter of 
 verbosity. Really good game books are sure to contain 
 descriptions which linger in the mind just like one's pet 
 passages in any other good book. One example is Selous' 
 account of his night watch close to the wagon, when in 
 the pitchy darkness he killed three of the five lions which 
 had attacked his oxen; or his extraordinary experience 
 while hunting elephants on a stallion which turned sulky, 
 and declined to gallop out of danger. The same is true 
 of Drummond's descriptions of the camps of native hunt- 
 ing parties, of tracking wounded buffalo through the 
 reeds, and of waiting for rhinos by a desert pool under the 
 brilliancy of the South African moon; descriptions, by 
 the way, which show that the power of writing interest- 
 ingly is not dependent upon even approximate correctness 
 
BOOKS ON BIG GAME 329 
 
 in style, for some of Mr, Drummond's sentences, in point 
 of length and involution, would compare not unfavorably 
 with those of a Populist Senator discussing bimetallism. 
 Drummond is not as trustworthy an observer as Selous. 
 
 The experiences of a hunter in Africa, with its teem- 
 ing wealth of strange and uncouth beasts, must have been, 
 and in places must still be, about what one's experience 
 would be if one could suddenly go back a few hundred 
 thousand years for a hunting trip in the Pliocene or Pleis- 
 tocene. In Mr. Astor Chanler's book, " Through Jungle 
 and Desert," the record of his trip through the melan- 
 choly reed beds of the Guaso Nyiro, and of his re- 
 turn journey, carrying his wounded companion, through 
 regions where the caravan was perpetually charged by 
 rhinoceros, reads like a bit out of the unreckoned ages of 
 the past, before the huge and fierce monsters of old had 
 vanished from the earth, or acknowledged man as their 
 master. An excellent book of mixed hunting and scien- 
 tific exploration is Mr. Donaldson Smith's " Through 
 Unknown African Countries." If anything, the hunting 
 part is unduly sacrificed to some of the minor scientific 
 work. Full knowledge of a new breed of rhinoceros, or 
 a full description of the life history and chase of almost 
 any kind of big game, is worth more than any quantity 
 of matter about new spiders and scorpions. Small birds 
 and insects remain in the land, and can always be de- 
 scribed by the shoal of scientific investigators who follow 
 the first adventurous explorers ; but it is only the pioneer 
 hunter who can tell us all about the far more interesting 
 and important beasts of the chase, the different kinds of 
 
330 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 big game, and especially dangerous big game; and it is 
 a mistake in any way to subordinate the greater work to 
 the lesser. 
 
 Books on big game hunting in India are as plentiful, 
 and as good, as those about Africa. Forsyth's " High- 
 lands of Central India," Sanderson's "Thirteen Years 
 Among the Wild Beasts of India," Shakespeare's " Wild 
 Sports of India," and Kinloch's " Large Game Shoot- 
 ing," are perhaps the best; but there are many other 
 writers, like Markham, Baldwin, Rice, Macintyre, and 
 Stone, who are also very good. Indeed, to give even 
 a mere list of the titles of the good books on Indian 
 shooting would read too much like the Homeric cata- 
 logue of ships, or the biblical generations of the Jew- 
 ish patriarchs. The four books singled out for special 
 reference are interesting reading for anyone; particularly 
 the accounts of the deaths of man-eating tigers at the 
 hands of Forsyth, Shakespeare, and Sanderson, and some 
 of Kinloch's Himalayan stalks. It is indeed royal sport 
 which the hunter has among the stupendous mountain 
 masses of the Himalayas, and in the rank jungles and 
 steamy tropical forests of India. 
 
 Hunting should go hand in hand with the love of 
 natural history, as well as with descriptive and narrative 
 power. Hornaday's " Two Years in the Jungle " is espe- 
 cially interesting to the naturalist ; but he adds not a little 
 to our knowledge of big game. It is earnestly to be 
 wished that some hunter will do for the gorilla what 
 Hornaday has done for the great East Indian ape, the 
 mias or orang. 
 
BOOKS ON BIG GAME 331 
 
 There are many good books on American big game, 
 but, rather curiously, they are for the most part modern. 
 Until within the present generation Americans only 
 hunted big game if they were frontier settlers, profes- 
 sional trappers, Southern planters, army officers, or ex- 
 plorers. The people of the cities of the old States were 
 bred in the pleasing faith that anything unconcerned with 
 business was both a waste of time and presumably im- 
 moral. Those who travelled went to Europe instead of 
 to the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Throughout the pioneer stages of American history, 
 big game hunting was not merely a pleasure, but a busi- 
 ness, and often a very important and in fact vital business. 
 At different times many of the men who rose to great 
 distinction in our after history took part in it as such: 
 men like Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston, for instance. 
 Moreover, aside from these pioneers who afterward won 
 distinction purely as statesmen or soldiers, there were 
 other members of the class of professional hunters — men 
 who never became eminent in the complex life of the 
 old civilized regions, who always remained hunters, and 
 gloried in the title — ^who, nevertheless, through and be- 
 cause of their life in the wilderness, rose to national fame 
 and left their mark on our history. The three most 
 famous men of this class were Daniel Boone, David 
 Crockett, and Kit Carson, who were renowned in every 
 quarter of the Union for their skill as game-killers, Ind- 
 ian-fighters, and wilderness explorers, and whose deeds 
 are still stock themes in the floating legendary lore of the 
 border. They stand for all time as types of the pioneer 
 
332 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 settlers who won our land; the bridge-builders, the road- 
 makers, the forest-fellers, the explorers, the land-tillers, 
 the mighty men of their hands, who laid the foundations 
 of this great commonwealth. 
 
 There are good descriptions of big game hunting in 
 the books of writers like Catlin, but they come in inci- 
 dentally. Elliott's " South Carolina Field Sports " is a 
 very interesting and entirely trustworthy record of the 
 sporting side of existence on the old Southern plantations, 
 and not only commemorates how the planters hunted 
 bear, deer, fox, and wildcat on the uplands and in the 
 cane-brakes, but also gives a unique description of har- 
 pooning the great devil-fish in the warm Southern waters. 
 John Palliser, an Englishman, in his " Solitary Hunter," 
 has given us the best descriptions of hunting in the far 
 West, when it was still an untrodden wilderness. An- 
 other Englishman, Ruxton, in two volumes, has left us a 
 most vivid picture of the old hunters and trappers them- 
 selves. Unfortunately, these old hunters and trappers, 
 the men who had most experience in the life of the wil- 
 derness, were utterly unable to write about it ; they could 
 not tell what they had seen or done. Occasional attempts 
 have been made to get noted hunters to write books, either 
 personally or by proxy, but these attempts have not as 
 a rule been successful. Perhaps the best of the books 
 thus produced is Hittell's " Adventures of James Capen 
 Adams, Mountaineer and Grizzly Bear Hunter." 
 
 The first effort to get men of means and cultivation 
 in the Northern and Eastern States of the Union to look 
 at field sports in the right light was made by an English- 
 
BOOKS ON BIG GAME 333 
 
 man who wrote over the signature of Frank Forrester. 
 He did much for the shotgun men; but, unfortunately, 
 he was a true cockney, who cared little for really wild 
 sports, and he was afflicted with that dreadful pedantry 
 which pays more heed to ceremonial and terminology 
 than to the thing itself. He was sincerely distressed be- 
 cause the male of the ordinary American deer was called 
 a buck instead of a stag; and it seemed to him to be a 
 matter of moment whether one spoke of a " gang " or a 
 " herd " of elk. 
 
 There are plenty of excellent books nowadays, how- 
 ever. The best book upon the old plains country was 
 Colonel Richard Irving Dodge's " Hunting-Grounds of 
 the Great West," which dealt with the chase of most 
 kinds of plains game proper. Judge Caton, in his " Ante- 
 lope and Deer of America," gave a full account of not 
 only the habits and appearance, but the methods of chase 
 and life histories of the prongbuck, and of all the dif- 
 ferent kinds of deer found in the United States. Dr. 
 Allen, in his memoir on the bisons of America, and 
 Hornaday, in his book upon their extermination, have 
 rendered similar service for the vast herds of shaggy- 
 maned wild cattle which have vanished with such mel- 
 ancholy rapidity during the lifetime of the present 
 generation. Mr. Van Dyke's " Still-Hunter " is a note- 
 worthy book, which, for the first time, approaches the 
 still-hunter and his favorite game, the deer, from what 
 may be called the standpoint of the scientific sportsman. 
 It is one of the few hunting-books which should really 
 be studied by the beginner because of what he can learn 
 
334 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 therefrom in reference to the hunter's craft. The Cen- 
 tury Co.'s volume " Sport With. Gun and Rod " contains 
 accounts of the chase of most of the kinds of American 
 big game, although there are two or three notable omis- 
 sions, such as the elk, the grizzly bear, and the white 
 goat. Warburton Pike, Caspar Whitney, and Frederick 
 Schwatka have given fairly full and very interesting ac- 
 counts of boreal sport; and Pendarves Vivian and Baillie- 
 Grohman of hunting trips in the Rockies. A new and 
 most important departure, that of photographing wild 
 animals in their homes, was marked by Mr. Wallihan's 
 " Camera Shots at Big Game." This is a noteworthy 
 volume. Mr. Wallihan was the pioneer in a work which 
 is of the utmost importance to the naturalist, the man 
 of science; and what he accomplished was far more 
 creditable to himself, and of far more importance to 
 others, than any amount of game-killing. Finally, in 
 Parkman's " Oregon Trail " and Irving's " Trip on the 
 Prairie," two great writers have left us a lasting record 
 of the free life of the rifle-bearing wanderers who first 
 hunted in the wild Western lands. 
 
 Though not hunting-books, John Burroughs' writ- 
 ings and John Muir's volumes on the Sierras should be 
 in the hands of every lover of outdoor life, and there- 
 fore in the hands of every hunter who is a nature lover, 
 and not a mere game-butcher. 
 
 Of course, there are plenty of books on European 
 game. Scrope's "Art of Deerstalking," Bromley Daven- 
 port's " Sport," and all the books of Charles St. John, 
 are classic. The chase of the wolf and boar is excellently 
 
BOOKS ON BIG GAME 335 
 
 described by an unnamed writer in " Wolf-Hunting and 
 Wild Sports of Brittany." Baillie-Grohman's " Sport in 
 the Alps " is devoted to the mountain game of Central 
 Europe, and is, moreover, a mine of curious hunting lore, 
 most of which is entirely new to men unacquainted with 
 the history of the chase in Continental Europe during 
 the last few centuries. An entirely novel type of ad- 
 venture was set forth in Lament's " Seasons with the Sea 
 Horses," wherein he described his hunting in arctic waters 
 with rifle and harpoon. Lloyd's " Scandinavian Ad- 
 ventures " and " Northern Field Sports," and Whishaw's 
 " Out of Doors in Tsar Land," tell of the life and game 
 of the snowy northern forests. Chapman has done ex- 
 cellent work for both Norway and Spain. It would 
 be impossible even to allude to the German and French 
 books on the chase, such as the admirable but rather 
 technical treatises of Le Couteulx de Canteleu. More- 
 over, these books for the most part belong rather in the 
 category which includes English fox-hunting literature, 
 not in that which deals with big game and the life of 
 the wilderness. This is merely to state a difference — not 
 to draw a comparison; for the artificial sports of highly 
 civilized countries are strongly to be commended for 
 their effect on national character in making good the 
 loss of certain of the rougher virtues which tend to dis- 
 appear with the rougher conditions. 
 
 In Mr. Edward North Buxton's two volumes of 
 " Short Stalks " we find the books of a man who is a 
 hardy lover of nature, a skilled hunter, but not a game- 
 butcher; a man who" has too much serious work on hand 
 
336 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 ever to let himself become a mere globe-trotting rifleman. 
 His volumes teach us just what a big game hunter, a true 
 sportsman, should be. But the best recent book on the 
 wilderness is Herr C. G. Schilling's " Mit Blitzlicht und 
 Biichse," giving the writer's hunting adventures, and 
 above all his acute scientific observations and his extra- 
 ordinary photographic work among the teeming wild 
 creatures of German East Africa. Mr. Schilling is a 
 great field naturalist, a trained scientific observer, as well 
 as a mighty hunter ; and no mere hunter can ever do work 
 even remotely approaching in value that which he has 
 done. His book should be translated into English at once. 
 Every effort should be made to turn the modern big 
 game hunter into the Schilling type of adventure-loving 
 field naturalist and observer. 
 
 I am not disposed to undervalue manly outdoor sports, 
 or to fail to appreciate the advantage to a nation, as well 
 as to an individual, of such pastimes; but they must be 
 pastimes, and not business, and they must not be carried 
 to excess. There is much to be said for the life of a 
 professional hunter in lonely lands; but the man able 
 to be something more, should be that something more 
 — an explorer, a naturalist, or else a man who makes 
 his hunting trips merely delightful interludes in his life 
 work. As for excessive game butchery, it amounts to a 
 repulsive debauch. The man whose chief title to glory 
 is that, during an industrious career of destruction, he 
 has slaughtered 200,000 head of deer and partridges, 
 stands unpleasantly near those continental kings and 
 nobles who, during the centuries before the French Rev- 
 
BOOKS ON BIG GAME 337 
 
 olution, deified the chase of the stag, and made it into 
 a highly artificial cult, which they followed to the ex- 
 clusion of State-craft and war-craft and everything else. 
 James, the founder of the ignoble English branch of the 
 Stuart kings, as unkingly a man as ever sat on a throne, 
 was fanatical in his devotion to the artificial kind of chase 
 which then absorbed the souls of the magnates of con- 
 tinental Europe. 
 
 There is no need to exercise much patience with men 
 who protest against field sports, unless, indeed, they are 
 logical vegetarians of the flabbiest Hindoo type. If no 
 deer or rabbits were killed, no crops could be cultivated. 
 If it is morally right to kill an animal to eat its body, 
 then it is morally right to kill it to preserve its head. A 
 good sportsman will not hesitate as to the relative value 
 he puts upon the two, and to get the one he will go a long 
 time without eating the other. No nation facing the un- 
 healthy softening and relaxation of fibre which tend to 
 accompany civilization can afford to neglect anything 
 that will develop hardihood, resolution, and the scorn of 
 discomfort and danger. But if sport is made an end in- 
 stead of a means, it is better to avoid it altogether. The 
 greatest stag-hunter of the seventeenth century was the 
 Elector of Saxony. During the Thirty Years' War he 
 killed some 80,000 deer and boar. Now, if there ever 
 was a time when a ruler needed to apply himself to 
 serious matters, it was during the Thirty Years' War in 
 Germany, and if the Elector in question had eschewed 
 hunting he might have compared more favorably with 
 Gustavus Adolphus in his own generation, or the Great 
 
338 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 Elector of Brandenburg in the next generation. The 
 kings of the House of Savoy have shown that the love 
 of hardy field sports in no way interferes with the exer- 
 cise of the highest kind of governmental ability. 
 
 Wellington was fond of fox-hunting, but he did very 
 little of it during the period of the Peninsular War. 
 Grant cared much for fine horses, but he devoted his at- 
 tention to other matters when facing Lee before Rich- 
 mond. Perhaps as good an illustration as could be wished 
 of the effects of the opposite course is furnished by poor 
 Louis XVI. He took his sport more seriously than he 
 did his position as ruler of his people. On the day when 
 the revolutionary mob came to Versailles, he merely re- 
 corded in his diary that he had " gone out shooting, and 
 had killed eighty-one head when he was interrupted by 
 events." The particular event to which this " interrup- 
 tion " led up was the guillotine. Not many sportsmen 
 have to face such a possibility; but they do run the risk 
 of becoming a curse to themselves and to everyone else, 
 if they once get into the frame of mind which can look 
 on the business of life as merely an interruption to sport. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 AT HOME 
 
 Only a few men, comparatively speaking, lead their 
 lives in the wilderness; only a few others, again speak- 
 ing comparatively, are able to take their holidays in the 
 shape of hunting trips in the wilderness. But all who 
 live in the country, or who even spend a month now 
 and then in the country, can enjoy outdoor life them- 
 selves, and can see that their children enjoy it in the hardy 
 fashion which will do them good. Camping out, and 
 therefore the cultivation of the capacity to live in the 
 open, and the education of the faculties which teach ob- 
 servation, resourcefulness, self-reliance, are within the 
 reach of all who really care for the life of the woods, 
 the fields, and the waters. Marksmanship with the rifle 
 can be cultivated with small cost or trouble ; and if any 
 one passes much time in the country he can, if only he 
 chooses, learn much about horsemanship. 
 
 But aside from any such benefit, it is an incalculable 
 added pleasure to any one's sum of happiness if he or 
 she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to 
 read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature. All hunters 
 should be nature lovers. It is to be hoped that the days 
 of mere wasteful, boastful slaughter, are past, and that 
 from now on the hunter will stand foremost in working 
 
 339 
 
340 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 for the preservation and perpetuation of the wild life, 
 whether big or little. 
 
 The Audubon Society and kindred organizations 
 have done much for the proper protection of birds and 
 of wild creatures generally; they have taken the lead in 
 putting a stop to wanton or short-sighted destruction, and 
 in giving effective utterance to the desires of those who 
 wish to cultivate a spirit as far removed as possible from 
 that which brings about such destruction. Sometimes, 
 however, in endeavoring to impress upon a not easily 
 aroused public the need for action, they in their zeal over- 
 state this need. This is a very venial error compared to 
 the good they have done ; but in the interest of scientific 
 accuracy it is to be desired that their cause should not 
 be buttressed in such manner. Many of our birds have 
 diminished lamentably in numbers, and there is every 
 reason for taking steps to preserve them. There are wa- 
 ter birds, shore birds, game birds, and an occasional con- 
 spicuous bird of some other kind, which can only be 
 preserved by such agitation. It is also most desirable 
 to prevent the slaughter of small birds in the neighbor- 
 hood of towns. But I question very much whether there 
 has been any diminution of small-bird life throughout 
 the country at large. Certainly no such diminution has 
 taken place during the past thirty years in any region of 
 considerable size with which I am personally acquainted. 
 Take Long Island, for instance. During this period 
 there has been a lamentable decrease in the waders — the 
 shore-birds — which used to flock along its southern shore. 
 But in northern Long Island, in the neighborhood of my 
 
RENOWN 
 From a photograph by Arthur Hewitt 
 
AT HOME 341 
 
 own home, birds, taken as a whole, are quite as plentiful 
 as they were when I was a boy. There are one or two 
 species which have decreased in numbers, notably the 
 woodcock; while the passenger pigeon, which was then 
 a rarely seen straggler, does not now appear at all. Bob- 
 whites are less plentiful. On the other hand, some birds 
 have certainly increased in numbers. This is true, for 
 instance, of the conspicuously beautiful and showy scar- 
 let tanager. I think meadow larks are rather more 
 plentiful than they were, and wrens less so. Bluebirds 
 have never been common with us, but are now rather 
 more common than formerly. It seems to me as if the 
 chickadees were more numerous than formerly. Purple 
 grakles are more plentiful than when I was a boy, and 
 the far more attractive redwing blackbirds less so. But 
 these may all be, and doubtless some must be, purely 
 local changes, which apply only to our immediate neigh- 
 borhood. As regards most of the birds, it would be hard 
 to say that there has been any change. Of course, obvi- 
 ous local causes will now and then account for a partial 
 change. Thus, while the little green herons are quite 
 as plentiful as formerly in our immediate neighborhood, 
 the white-crowned night herons are not as plentiful, be- 
 cause they abandoned their big heronry on Lloyd's Neck 
 upon the erection of a sandmill close by. The only ducks 
 which are now, or at any time during the last thirty years 
 have been, abundant in our neighborhood are the surf- 
 ducks or scoters, and the old-squaws, sometimes known 
 as long-tailed or sou'-sou'-southerly ducks. From late 
 fall until early spring the continuous musical clangor of 
 
342 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 the great flocks of sou'-sou'-southerlies, sounding across 
 the steel-gray, wintry waves, is well known to all who 
 sail the waters of the Sound. 
 
 Neither the birds nor the flowers are as numerous on 
 Long Island, or at any rate in my neighborhood, as they 
 are, for instance, along the Hudson and near Washing- 
 ton. It is hard to say exactly why flowers and birds are 
 at times so local in their distribution. For instance, the 
 bobolinks hardly ever come around us at Sagamore Hill. 
 Within a radius of three or four miles of the house I do 
 not remember to have ever seen more than two or three 
 couples breeding. Sharp-tailed finches are common in 
 the marsh which lies back of our beach; but the closely 
 allied seaside finches and the interesting and attractive 
 little marsh wrens, both of which are common in vari- 
 ous parts of Long Island, are not found near our home. 
 Similarly, I know of but one place near our house where 
 the bloodroot grows; the may-flowers are plentiful, but 
 among hillsides to all appearance equally favored, are 
 found on some, and not on others. For wealth of bloom, 
 aside from the orchards, we must rely chiefly upon the 
 great masses of laurel and the many groves of locusts. 
 The bloom of the locust is as evanescent as it is fragrant. 
 During the short time that the trees are in flower the 
 whole air is heavy with the sweet scent. In the fall, in 
 the days of the aster and the golden-rod, there is no 
 such brilliant coloring on Long Island as farther north, 
 for we miss from among the forest hues the flaming 
 crimsons and scarlets of the northern maples. 
 
 Among Long Island singers the wood-thrushes are 
 

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 HIS FIRST BUCK 
 
AT HOME 343 
 
 the sweetest; they nest right around our house, and also 
 in the more open woods of oak, hickory, and chestnut, 
 where their serene, leisurely songs ring through the leafy 
 arches all day long, but especially at daybreak and in 
 the afternoons. Baltimore orioles, beautiful of voice 
 and plumage, hang their nests in a young elm near a 
 corner of the porch; robins, catbirds, valiant kingbirds, 
 song-sparrows, chippies, bright colored thistle-finches, 
 nest within a stone's throw of the house, in the shrub- 
 bery or among the birches and maples; grasshopper 
 sparrows, humble little creatures with insect-like voices, 
 nest almost as close, in the open field, just beyond the 
 line where the grass is kept cut; humming-birds visit 
 the honeysuckles and trumpet-flowers ; chimney swallows 
 build in the chimneys; barn swallows nest in the stable 
 and old barn, wrens in the bushes near by. Downy 
 woodpeckers and many other birds make their homes 
 in the old orchard; during the migrations it is alive 
 with warblers. Towhees, thrashers, and Maryland yel- 
 low-throats build and sing in the hedges by the garden; 
 bush sparrows and dainty little prairie warblers in the 
 cedar-grown field beyond. Red-wing blackbirds haunt 
 the wet places. Chickadees wander everywhere; the 
 wood-pewees, red-eyed vireos, and black and white creep- 
 ers keep to the tall timber, where the wary, thievish 
 jays chatter, and the great-crested fly-catchers flit and 
 scream. In the early spring, when the woods are still 
 bare, when the hen-hawks cry as they soar high in the 
 upper air, and the flickers call and drum on the dead 
 trees, the strong, plaintive note of the meadow lark is 
 
344 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 one of the most noticeable and most attractive sounds. 
 On the other hand, the cooing of the mourning doves 
 is most noticeable in the still, hot summer days. In 
 the thick tangles chats creep and flutter and jerk, and 
 chuckle and whoop as they sing; I have heard them sing 
 by night. The cedar birds offer the most absolute con- 
 trast to the chats, in voice, manner, and habits. They 
 never hide, they are never fussy or noisy; they always 
 behave as if they were so well-bred that it is impossible 
 to resent the inroads the soft, quiet, pretty creatures make 
 among the cherries. One flicker became possessed of a 
 mania to dig its hole in one corner of the house, just 
 under the roof. It hammered lustily at boards and 
 shingles, and returned whenever driven away; until at 
 last we were reluctantly forced to decree its death. Oven- 
 birds are very plentiful, and it seems to me that their 
 flight song is more frequently given after dusk than in 
 daylight. It is sometimes given when the whippoor- 
 wills are calling. In late June evenings, especially by 
 moonlight, but occasionally even when the night is dark, 
 we hear this song from the foot of the hill where the 
 woods begin. There seems to be one particular corner 
 where year after year one or more oven-birds dwell 
 which possess an especial fondness for this night-sing- 
 ing in the air. It is a pity the little eared owl is called 
 screech-owl. Its tremulous, quavering cry is not a 
 screech at all, and has an attraction of its own. These 
 little owls come up to the house after dark, and are fond 
 of sitting on the elk antlers over the gable. When the 
 moon is up, by choosing one's position, the little owl 
 
ALGONQUIN AND SKIP 
 
AT HOME 345 
 
 appears in sharp outline against the bright disk, seated 
 on his many-tined perch. 
 
 The neighborhood of Washington abounds in birds 
 no less than in flowers. There have been one or two 
 rather curious changes among its birds since John Bur- 
 roughs wrote of them forty years ago. He speaks of the 
 red-headed woodpecker as being then one of the most 
 abundant of all birds — even more so than the robin. It 
 is not uncommon now, and a pair have for three years 
 nested in the White House grounds; but it is at present 
 by no means an abundant bird. On the other hand, John 
 Burroughs never saw any mocking-birds, whereas during 
 the last few years these have been increasing in numbers, 
 and there are now several places within easy walking or 
 riding distance where we are almost sure to find them. 
 The mocking-bird is as conspicuous as it is attractive, 
 and when at its best it is the sweetest singer of all birds ; 
 though its talent for mimicry, and a certain odd perversity 
 in its nature, often combine to mar its performances. The 
 way it flutters and dances in the air when settling in a 
 tree-top, its alert intelligence, its good looks, and the com- 
 parative ease with which it can be made friendly and 
 familiar, all add to its charm. I am sorry to say that 
 it does not nest in the White House grounds. Neither 
 does the wood-thrush, which is so abundant in Rock 
 Creek Park, within the city limits. Numbers of robins, 
 song-sparrows, sputtering, creaking purple grakles — 
 crow blackbirds — and catbirds nest in the grounds. So, I 
 regret to say, do crows, the sworn foes of all small birds, 
 and as such entitled to no mercy. The hearty, whole- 
 
346 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 some, vigorous songs of the robins, and the sweet, home- 
 like strains of the song-sparrows are the first to be regu- 
 larly heard in the grounds, and they lead the chorus. 
 The catbirds chime in later; they are queer, familiar, 
 strongly individual birds, and are really good singers; 
 but they persist in interrupting their songs with cat- 
 like squalling. Two or three pairs of flickers nest 
 with us, as well as the red-headed woodpeckers above 
 mentioned; and a pair of furtive cuckoos. A pair of 
 orchard orioles nested with us one spring, but not 
 again; the redstarts, warbling vireos, and summer war- 
 blers have been more faithful. Baltimore orioles fre- 
 quently visit us, as do the scarlet tanagers and tufted 
 titmice, but for some reason they have not nested here. 
 This spring a cardinal bird took up his abode in the 
 neighborhood of the White House, and now and then 
 waked us in the morning by his vigorous whistling in 
 a magnolia tree just outside our windows. A Carolina 
 wren also spent the winter with us, and sang freely. 
 In both spring and fall the white-throated sparrows 
 sing while stopping over in the course of their migra- 
 tions. Their delicate, plaintive, musical notes are among 
 the most attractive of bird sounds. In the early spring 
 we sometimes hear the fox-sparrows and tree-sparrows, 
 and of course the twittering snow-birds. Later war- 
 blers of many kinds throng the trees around the house. 
 Rabbits breed in the grounds, and every now and then 
 possums wander into them. Gray squirrels are numer- 
 ous, and some of them so tame that they will eat out of 
 our hands. In spring they cut the flowers from the stately 
 
PETER RABBIT 
 From a photograph, copyright, 1904, by E. S. Curtis 
 
AT HOME 347 
 
 tulip trees. In the hot June days the indigo birds are 
 especially in evidence among the singers around Wash- 
 ington ; they do not mind the heat at all, but perch in the 
 tops of little trees in the full glare of the sun, and chant 
 their not very musical, but to my ears rather pleasing, 
 song throughout the long afternoons. This June two new 
 guests came to the White House in the shape of two little 
 saw-whet owls; little bits of fellows, with round heads, 
 and no head tufts, or " ears." I think they were the 
 young of the year; they never uttered the saw-whet 
 sound, but made soft snoring noises. They always ap- 
 peared after nightfall, when we were sitting on the south 
 porch, in the warm, starlit darkness. They were fear- 
 less and unsuspicious. Sometimes they flew noiselessly to 
 and fro, and seemingly caught big insects on the wing. 
 At other times they would perch on the iron awning- 
 bars, directly overhead. Once one of them perched over 
 one of the windows, and sat motionless, looking exactly 
 like an owl of Pallas Athene. 
 
 At Sagamore Hill we like to have the wood-folk and 
 field-folk familiar ; but there are necessary bounds to such 
 familiarity where chickens are kept for use and where 
 the dogs are valued family friends. The rabbits and gray 
 squirrels are as plenty as ever. The flying squirrels and 
 chipmunks still hold their own; so do the muskrats in 
 the marshes. The woodchucks, which we used to watch 
 as we sat in rocking-chairs on the broad veranda, have 
 disappeared; but recently one has made himself a home 
 under the old barn, where we are doing our best to pro- 
 tect him. A mink which lived by the edge of the bay 
 
348 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 under a great pile of lumber had to be killed; its lair 
 showed the remains not only of chickens and ducks, but 
 of two muskrats, and, what was rather curious, of two 
 skates or flatfish. A fox which lived in the big wood lot 
 evidently disliked our companionship and abandoned his 
 home. Of recent years I have actually seen but one fox 
 near Sagamore Hill. This was early one morning, when 
 I had spent the night camping on the wooded shores near 
 the mouth of Huntington Harbor. The younger chil- 
 dren were with me, this being one of the camping-out 
 trips, in rowboats, on the Sound, taken especially for their 
 benefit. We had camped the previous evening in a glade 
 by the edge of a low sea-bluff, far away from any house ; 
 and while the children were intently watching me as I 
 fried strips of beefsteak and thin slices of potatoes in 
 bacon fat, we heard a fox barking in the woods. This 
 gave them a delightfully wild feeling, and with re- 
 freshing confidence they discussed the likelihood of 
 seeing it next morning; and to my astonishment see 
 it we did, on the shore, soon after we started to row 
 home. 
 
 One pleasant fall morning in 1892 I was writing in 
 the gun-room, on the top floor of the house, from the 
 windows of which one can see far over the Sound. Sud- 
 denly my small boy of five bustled up in great excite- 
 ment to tell me that the hired-man had come back from 
 the wood-pile pond — a muddy pool in a beech and 
 hickory grove a few hundred yards from the house — to 
 say that he had seen a coon and that I should come 
 down at once with my rifle; for Davis, the colored gar- 
 
THE GUINEA-PIGS 
 
AT HOME 349 
 
 dener, had been complaining much about the loss of his 
 chickens and did not know whether the malefactor was 
 a coon or a mink. Accordingly, I picked up a rifle and 
 trotted down to the pond holding it in one hand, while 
 the little boy trotted after me, affectionately clasping the 
 butt. Sure enough, in a big blasted chestnut close to 
 the pond was the coon, asleep in a shallow hollow of 
 the trunk, some forty feet from the ground. It was a 
 very exposed place for a coon to lie during the daytime, 
 but this was a bold fellow and seemed entirely undis- 
 turbed by our voices. He was altogether too near the 
 house, or rather the chicken-coops, to be permitted to 
 stay where he was — especially as but a short time before 
 I had, with mistaken soft-heartedness, spared a possum 
 I found on the place — and accordingly I raised my rifle ; 
 then I remembered for the first time that the rear sight 
 was off, as I had taken it out for some reason; and in 
 consequence I underwent the humiliation of firing two 
 or three shots in vain before I got the coon. As he 
 fell out of the tree the little boy pounced gleefully on 
 him; fortunately he was dead, and we walked back to 
 the house in triumph, each holding a hind leg of the 
 quarry. 
 
 The possum spoken of above was found in a dogwood 
 tree not more than eighty yards from the house, one after- 
 noon when we were returning from a walk in the woods. 
 As something had been killing the hens, I felt that it was 
 at least under suspicion and that I ought to kill it, but 
 a possum is such an absurd creature that I could not 
 resist playing with it for some time ; after that I felt that 
 
35° 
 
 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 to kill it in cold-blood would be too much like murder, 
 and let it go. This tender-heartedness was regarded as 
 much misplaced both by farmer and gardener ; hence the 
 coon suffered. 
 
 A couple of years later, on a clear, cold Thanksgiving 
 Day, we had walked off some five miles to chop out a 
 bridle-path which had become choked with down-tim- 
 ber; the two elder of our little boys were with us. The 
 sun had set long ere our return ; we were walking home 
 on a road through our own woods and were near the 
 house. We had with us a stanch friend, a large yel- 
 low dog, which one of the children, with fine disregard 
 for considerations of sex, had named Susan. Suddenly 
 Susan gave tongue off in the woods to one side and we 
 found he had treed a possum. This time I was hard- 
 hearted and the possum fell a victim; the five-year-old 
 boy explaining to the seven-year-old that " it was the 
 first time he had ever seen a fellow killed." 
 
 Susan was one of many dogs whose lives were a joy 
 and whose deaths were a real grief to the family; among 
 them and their successors are or have been Sailor Boy, 
 the Chesapeake Bay dog, who not only loves guns, but 
 also fireworks and rockets, and who exercises a close and 
 delighted supervision over every detail of each Fourth 
 of July celebration; Alan and Jessie, the Scotch ter- 
 riers; and Jack, the most loved of all, a black smooth- 
 haired Manchester terrier. Jack lived in the house; 
 the others outside, ever on the lookout to join the family 
 in rambles through the woods. Jack was human in his 
 intelligence and affection; he learned all kinds of tricks, 
 
ai. 
 
 >■ 
 
AT HOME 351 
 
 was a high-bred gentleman, never brawled, and was a 
 dauntless fighter. Besides the family, his especial friend, 
 playfellow, and teacher was colored Charles, the foot- 
 man at Washington. Skip, the little black-and-tan ter- 
 rier that I brought back from the Colorado bear hunt, 
 changed at once into a real little-boy's dog. He never 
 lets his small master out of his sight, and rides on every 
 horse that will let him — by preference on Algonquin the 
 sheltie, whose nerves are of iron. 
 
 The first night possum hunt in which I ever took part 
 was at Quantico, on the Virginia side of the Potomac, 
 some twenty miles below Washington. It was a number 
 of years ago, and several of us were guests of a loved 
 friend, Hallett Phillips, since dead. Although no hunter, 
 Phillips was devoted to outdoor life. I think it was at 
 this time that Rudyard Kipling had sent him the manu- 
 script of " The Feet of the Young Men," which he read 
 aloud to us. 
 
 Quantico is an island, a quaint, delightful place, with 
 a club-house. We started immediately after dark, going 
 across to the mainland, accompanied by a dozen hounds, 
 with three or four negroes to manage them and serve as 
 axemen. Each member of the party carried a torch, 
 as without one it was impossible to go at any speed 
 through the woods. The dogs, of course, have to be spe- 
 cially trained not to follow either fox or rabbit. It was 
 dawn before we got back, wet, muddy, and weary, carry- 
 ing eleven possums. All night long we rambled through 
 the woods and across the fields, the dogs working about 
 us as we followed in single file. After a while some dog 
 
352 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 would strike a trail. It might take some time to puzzle 
 it out; then the whole pack would be away, and all the 
 men ran helter-skelter after them, plunging over logs and 
 through swamps, and now and then taking headers in 
 the darkness. We were never fortunate enough to strike 
 a coon, which would have given a good run and a fight 
 at the end of it. When the unfortunate possum was over- 
 taken on the ground he was killed before we got up. 
 Otherwise he was popped alive into one of the big bags 
 carried by the axemen. Two or three times he got into a 
 hollow log or hole and we dug or chopped him out. Gen- 
 erally, however, he went up a tree. It was a picturesque 
 sight, in the flickering glare of the torches, to see the dogs 
 leaping up around the trunk of a tree and finally to make 
 out the possum clinging to the trunk or perched on some 
 slender branch, his eyes shining brightly through the 
 darkness ; or to watch the muscular grace with which the 
 darky axemen, ragged and sinewy, chopped into any tree 
 if it had too large and smooth a trunk to climb. A pos- 
 sum is a queer, sluggish creature, whose brain seems to 
 work more like that of some reptile than like a mam- 
 mal's. When one is found in a tree there is no difficulty 
 whatever in picking it off with the naked hand. Two 
 or three times during the night I climbed the tree myself, 
 either going from branch to branch or swarming up some 
 tangle of grape-vines. The possum opened his mouth as 
 I approached and looked as menacing as he knew how; 
 but if I pulled him by the tail he forgot everything ex- 
 cept trying to grab with all four feet, and then I could 
 take him by the back of the neck and lift him off — either 
 
AT HOME 353 
 
 carrying him down, held gingerly at arm's length, or 
 dropping him into the open mouth of a bag if I felt suf- 
 ficiently sure of my aim. 
 
 In the spring of 1903, while in western Kansas, a little 
 girl gave me a baby badger, captured by her brother, and 
 named after him, Josiah. I took Josiah home to Saga- 
 more Hill, where the children received him literally with 
 open arms, while even the dogs finally came to tolerate 
 him. He grew apace, and was a quaint and on the whole 
 a friendly — thrfugh occasionally short-tempered — pet. 
 He played tag with us with inexhaustible energy, looking 
 much like a small mattress with a leg at each corner ; he 
 dug holes with marvellous rapidity; and when he grew 
 snappish we lifted him up by the back of the neck, which 
 rendered him harmless. He ate bread and milk, dead 
 mice and birds, and eggs ; he would take a hen's egg in 
 his mouth, break it, and avoid spilling any of the contents. 
 When angered, he hissed, and at other times he made low 
 guttural sounds. The nine-year-old boy became his espe- 
 cial friend. Now and then he nipped the little boy's 
 legs, but this never seemed to interrupt the amicable rela- 
 tions between the two; as the little boy normally wore 
 neither shoes nor stockings, and his blue overalls were 
 thin, Josiah probably found the temptation at times irre- 
 sistible. If on such occasions the boy was in Josiah's 
 wire-fenced enclosure, he sat on a box with his legs tucked 
 under him; if the play was taking place outside, he 
 usually climbed into the hammock, while Josiah pranced 
 and capered clumsily beneath, tail up and head thrown 
 back. But Josiah never bit when picked up ; although 
 
354 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 he hissed like a teakettle as the little boy carried him 
 about, usually tightly clasped round where his waist 
 would have been if he had had one. 
 
 At different times I have been given a fairly appalling 
 number of animals, from known and unknown friends ; in 
 one year the list included — ^besides a lion, a hyena, and a 
 zebra from the Emperor of Ethiopia — five bears, a wild- 
 cat, a coyote, two macaws, an eagle, a barn owl, and sev- 
 eral snakes and lizards. Most of these went to the Zoo, 
 but a few were kept by the children. Those thus kept 
 numbered at one end of the scale gentle, trustful, pretty 
 things, like kangaroo rats and flying squirrels ; and at the 
 other end a queer-tempered young black bear, which the 
 children named Jonathan Edwards, partly because of cer- 
 tain well-marked Calvinistic tendencies in his disposition, 
 partly out of compliment to their mother, whose ances- 
 tors included that Puritan divine. The kangaroo rats and 
 flying squirrels slept in their pockets and blouses, went to 
 school with them, and sometimes unexpectedly appeared 
 at breakfast or dinner. The bear added zest to life in 
 more ways than one. When we took him to walk, it was 
 always with a chain and club ; and when at last he went 
 to the Zoo, the entire household breathed a sigh of relief, 
 although I think the dogs missed him, as he had occa- 
 sionally yielded them the pleasure of the chase in its 
 strongest form. 
 
 As a steady thing, the children found rabbits and 
 guinea pigs the most satisfactory pets. The guinea pigs 
 usually rejoiced in the names of the local or national 
 celebrities of the moment; at one time there were five, 
 
JOSIAH 
 
• AT HOME 355 
 
 which were named after naval heroes and friendly ecclesi- 
 astical dignitaries — an Episcopalian Bishop, a Catholic 
 Priest, and my own Dutch Reformed Pastor — Bishop 
 Doane, Father O'Grady, Dr. Johnson, Fighting Bob 
 Evans, and Admiral Dewey. Father O'Grady, by the 
 way, proved to be of the softer sex; a fact definitely estab- 
 lished when two of his joint owners, rushing breathless 
 into the room, announced to a mixed company, " Oh, oh. 
 Father O'Grady has had some children! " 
 
 Of course there are no pets like horses; and horse- 
 manship is a test of prowess. The best among vigorous 
 out-of-door sports should be more than pastimes. Play 
 is good for play's sake, within moderate limits, especially 
 if it is athletic play; and, again within moderate limits, 
 it is good because a healthy body helps toward healthi- 
 ness of mind. But if play serves only either of these 
 ends, it does not deserve the serious consideration which 
 rightly attaches to play which in itself fits a man to do 
 things worth doing; and there exists no creature much 
 more contemptible than a man past his first youth who 
 leads a life devoted to mere sport, without thought of the 
 serious work of life. In a free Government the average 
 citizen should be able to do his duty in war as well as in 
 peace ; otherwise he falls short. Cavalrymen and infan- 
 trymen, who do not need special technical knowledge, are 
 easily developed out of men who are already soldiers in 
 the rough, that is, who, in addition to the essential quali- 
 ties of manliness and character, the qualities of resolution, 
 daring and intelligence, which go to make up the "fight- 
 ing edge," also possess physical hardihood ; who can live 
 
356 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 in the open, walk long distances, ride, shoot, and endure 
 fatigue, hardship, and exposure. But if all these traits 
 must be painfully acquired, then it takes a long time in- 
 deed before the man can be turned into a good soldier. 
 Now, there is little tendency to develop these traits in our 
 highly complex, rather over-civilized, modern industrial 
 life, and therefore the sports which produce them serve 
 a useful purpose. Hence, when able to afford a horse, 
 or to practise on a rifle range, one can feel that the enjoy- 
 ment is warranted by what may be called considerations 
 of national ethics. 
 
 As with everything else, so with riding; some take to 
 it naturally, others never can become even fairly good 
 horsemen. All the children ride, with varying skill. 
 While young, a Shetland pony serves ; the present pony, 
 Algonquin, a calico or pinto, being as knowing and 
 friendly as possible. His first small owner simply adored 
 him, treating him as a twin brother, and having implicit 
 faith in his mental powers. On one occasion, when a 
 naval officer of whom the children were fond came to 
 call, in full dress, Algonquin's master, who was much 
 impressed by the sight, led up Algonquin to enjoy it too, 
 and was shocked by the entire indifference with which the 
 greedy pony persisted in eating grass. One favorite polo 
 pony, old Diamond, long after he became a pensionerj 
 served for whichever child had just graduated from the 
 sheltie. Next in order was a little mare named Yagenka, 
 after the heroine of one of Sienkewicz's blood-curdling 
 romances of mediaeval Poland. When every rideable 
 animal is impressed, all the children sometimes go out 
 
BLEISTEIN JUMPING 
 From a photograph, copyright, 1902, by Clinedinstj Washington, D. C. 
 
AT HOME 357 
 
 with their mother and me; looking much like the Cum- 
 berbatch family in Caldecott's pictures. 
 
 Of recent years I have not been able to ride to hounds ; 
 but when opportunity has offered I have kept as saddle 
 horses one or two hunters, so that instead of riding the 
 road I could strike off across country; the hunter scram- 
 bling handily through rough places, and jumping an oc- 
 casional fence if necessary. While in Washington this 
 is often, except for an occasional long walk down Rock 
 Creek or along the Virginia side of the Potomac, the 
 only exercise I can get. Among the various horses I have 
 owned in recent years Bleistein was the one I liked best, 
 because of his good nature and courage. He was a fair, 
 although in no way a remarkable, jumper. One day. 
 May 3, 1902, I took him out to Chevy Chase and had 
 him photographed while jumping various fences and 
 brush hurdles; the accompanying picture is from one of 
 these photos. Another hunter. Renown, was a much 
 higher, but an uncertain, jumper. He was a beau- 
 tiful horse, and very good-tempered, but excessively 
 timid. 
 
 We have been able to fix a rifle range at Sagamore, 
 though only up to 200 yards. Some of the children take 
 to shooting naturally, others can only with difficulty be 
 made to learn the rudiments of what they regard as a 
 tiresome business. Many friends have shot on this range. 
 We use only sporting rifles; my own is one of the new 
 model Government Springfields, stocked and sighted to 
 suit myself. For American game the modern small cali- 
 bre, high power, smokeless powder rifle, of any one 
 
358 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 
 
 among several makes, is superseding the others ; although 
 for some purposes an old 45-70 or 45-90, even with black 
 powder, is as good as any modern weapon, and for very 
 heavy game the calibre should be larger than that of the 
 typical modern arm, with a heavier ball and more 
 powder. But after all, any good modern rifle is good 
 enough ; when a certain pitch of excellence in the weapon 
 has been attained, then the determining factor in achiev- 
 ing success is the quality of the man behind the gun. 
 
 My eldest boy killed his first buck just before he was 
 fourteen, and his first moose — a big bull with horns 
 which spread 56 inches — just before he was seventeen. 
 Both were killed in the wilderness, in the great north 
 woods, on trips sufficiently hard to afford some test of 
 endurance and skill. Such a hunting trip is even more 
 than a delightful holiday, provided the work is hard as 
 well as enjoyable ; and therefore it must be taken in the 
 wilderness. Big private preserves may serve a useful 
 purpose if managed with such judgment and kindliness 
 that the good will of the neighborhood is secured; but 
 the sport in them somehow seems to have lost its savor, 
 even though they may be large enough to give the chance 
 of testing a man's woodcraft no less than his marksman- 
 ship. I have but once hunted in one of them. That 
 was in the fall of 1902, when Senator Proctor took me 
 into the Corbin Park game preserve in New Hampshire. 
 The Senator is not merely a good shot; he is a good 
 hunter, with the eye, the knowledge of the game, and the 
 ability to take advantage of cover and walk silently, 
 which are even more important than straight powder. 
 
AT HOME 359 
 
 He took me out alone for the afternoon, and, besides the, 
 tame buffalo, he showed me one elk and over twenty deer. 
 We were only after the wild boar, which have flourished 
 wonderfully. Just at dusk we saw a three-year-old boar 
 making his way toward an old deserted orchard; and 
 creeping up, I shot him as he munched apples under one 
 of the trees. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The following letters explain themselves. It would 
 seem that not only when wild but when in a menagerie 
 the cougar is a much less dangerous animal than the 
 jaguar or leopard; and it also looks as if it were more 
 mild-tempered, and indeed playful, than either of the 
 big spotted cats. In the wild state, I personally have not 
 happened to come across instances of full-grown pumas 
 frolicking or playing, except when two were mating ; but 
 I have known young pumas to play. 
 
 "Oyster Bay, N. Y., July i8, 1905. 
 " My dear Mr. Bostock : 
 
 " In connection with your book on the training of wild 
 animals, in which I was greatly interested, I would like to ask 
 whether you find that the puma or cougar shows a different 
 kind of temper from the leopard or old world panther, and 
 from the jaguar ? I ask this, because in hunting it I have 
 found it to be, compared to the big bear, a cowardly animal, 
 and if what I read of the danger of hunting the Indian and 
 African leopard is true, then the puma is not nearly as for- 
 midable as the leopard or the jaguar — in short, is not nearly 
 so formidable as the big spotted cats, though it is as big and 
 as formidably armed. Have you noticed any difference in 
 your work among these species, taking the average of one 
 and comparing it, as to temper, ferocity, etc., with the average 
 of the other ? Of course there are wide individual differ- 
 ences ; but that is not what I am after at present. I notice 
 
 363 
 
364 APPENDIX 
 
 that you say there is little or no diiFerence as among the 
 tiger, lion, leopard, and jaguar, comparing species with species. 
 " With regard, sincerely yours, 
 
 "Theodore Roosevelt. 
 "Frank C. Bostock, Esa., New York, N. Y." 
 
 " RiDGEFiELD, CoNN., July 17, 1905. 
 "Theodore Roosevelt, Esq. 
 
 " Dear Sir : I see by the papers that you have written 
 to Mr. Bostock asking a question about the puma. As I 
 wrote the entire book, 'The Training of Wild Animals,* 
 from facts given me by Mr. Bostock and his trainers, added 
 to my own personal knowledge and study, I think I can 
 answer your question, which may be useful in addition to any 
 information Mr. Bostock may send you, which cannot reach 
 you for some little time. 
 
 " In my own opinion, the puma is not nearly so formidable 
 as either the tiger, jaguar, lion, or leopard — it is, as a rule, a 
 timid and, unless unexpectedly surprised, cowardly creature. 
 
 " I spent many weeks in Mr. Bostock's animal show before 
 writing the book, studying the animals from every point of 
 view. Yours very truly, 
 
 " Ellen Velvin, F.Z.S." 
 
 "RlDGEFIELD, CoNN., Julj 3 1, I9O5. 
 
 "Theodore Roosevelt, Esq. 
 
 " Dear Sir : Very many thanks for your kind letter. My 
 own personal experiences with pumas in captivity (I know 
 nothing personally about them in their wild state) confirms 
 my impression that they are not in any way as formidable as 
 either the tiger, jaguar, lion, or leopard, as I said in my last 
 letter. I have often watched for hours at a time wild animals 
 being trained, and in nearly all cases of the big carnivora there 
 is rage, resentment, and finally enforced submission. Habit, 
 
APPENDIX 365 
 
 constant insistence, and the superior will of a strong-minded 
 man or woman generally gain the day after endless trouble, 
 patience, and what at times appears hke useless repetitions. 
 This applies to lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, bears, hyenas, 
 sloth bears, elephants, and chimpanzees. With the puma it 
 is different. 
 
 " When studying in the show, I found that it was next to 
 impossible to get even a look from a lion, tiger, cheetah, leop- 
 ard, or jaguar, no matter what cries, movements, or methods 
 I employed, unless I touched the bars or doors of their cages. 
 Then there would be an instant transformation. With a 
 vicious growl or snarl, and with tail straight and stiff, the lion 
 would spring forward with such a sudden bound that I would 
 draw back unconsciously. The tiger would swing his tail in 
 a gentle manner, but the growl and gleam of eyes and teeth 
 would tell what he would do if he were only able. The leop- 
 ards and jaguars would behave in the same manner ; the bears 
 would move forward heavily, but with deadly intention, but 
 in all cases I found the puma pkyful and ready for any little 
 bit of fun like a young kitten. Even when being taught 
 tricks — pumas are not easily taught anything — they generally 
 seemed to have the idea that the trainer was playing with 
 them. There would occasionally be a snarl and a hiss, but 
 these always ended in a playful pat and a stolid indifference. 
 I used to shake my muff — it had tails of fur on either side — 
 at two pumas, and they would roll over on the floor with 
 delight, pat the tip of it through the bars, and purr their 
 loudest. 
 
 " It is the same with four fine pumas in the New York 
 Zoological Park. By waving something at them and talking 
 in a gentle manner, one or the other, sometimes all four, will 
 come forward, play like kittens, and purr loudly. I have 
 often put my hands through the bars and stroked them over 
 the head and ears, seemingly to their great pleasure, but to do 
 
366 APPENDIX 
 
 this to any of the other carnivora is a dangerous and fool- 
 hardy thing, as I have seen many a time, 
 
 " I asked a trainer's opinion of pumas, and his answer 
 was that ' there was nothing to be feared with them, but they 
 would never do much — a jump through a ring being about 
 the most they would ever do, except sit on a pedestal and 
 swear.' Another trainer told me it was an easy thing to train 
 a puma, while a third told me it was almost impossible. The 
 fact is, that with these trainers, as with other men, some can 
 accomplish what others cannot, and so in many cases, after 
 hearing five or six versions, I had to draw my own conclusions 
 from personal observations, and sift out the truth from the 
 many little embellishments which trainers are so apt to put in. 
 
 " It happened one morning that a puma got out. I met 
 it walking calmly round the show (this was before the public 
 was admitted) and sniffing at all that came in its way, includ- 
 ing myself. It seemed nervous and uneasy, but when its 
 keeper called it, went straight back into its cage and began 
 purring at once. My opinion is that it would have allowed 
 me to stroke it had not the keeper called it at that moment. 
 
 " Trusting that these few facts about the puma may be of 
 some use to you. Yours very truly, 
 
 " Ellen Velvin." 
 
 "Paris, August 4, 1905. 
 " To THE President of the United States, 
 "Washington, D. C. 
 
 " My dear Mr. President : 
 
 " I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter, 
 July 1 8 th, forwarded to me here from New York. 
 
 " My experience with pumas fully justifies my calling them 
 cowardly. Comparing them with the leopard and panther 
 of India and Africa I might say that out of 20 of the 
 former we might be able to train 8 or 10 at most, whereas with 
 
APPENDIX 367 
 
 20 pumas I feel safe in saying that we should handle nearly 
 if not quite all of them ; true they are very similar in size and 
 are equally as well armed with teeth and claws, but they have 
 not for a moment the courage or audacity of the leopard and 
 panther. 
 
 " Bears vary much and there are but few animals more 
 dangerous. Several of the worst accidents that have hap- 
 pened in our establishment which dates back exactly 100 
 years, 1805— 1905, have been occasioned by bears. 
 
 " Assuring you of my kindly appreciation of your hon- 
 orable inquiry and holding myself at all times at your service, 
 I am, dear Mr. President, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "Frank C. Bostock." 
 
 From this it looks as if there were a curious psychic 
 difference between the cougar and the other big cats. I 
 do not believe a leopard or jaguar would go up a tree 
 for one rather small dog, as a cougar will often (although 
 by no means always) do. Yet the cougar often preys on 
 animals as big and as formidable as those preyed on by 
 the jaguar or leopard. The biggest male which I killed 
 was, in point of size, of muscular power, and of devel- 
 opment of claws and teeth, more formidable by far than 
 the average leopard or jaguar, nor do I believe that the 
 ordinary individual of either of these species could have 
 opposed it in fight ; it had been killing full-grown steers 
 and horses; yet it made no offer to charge me, though 
 killed under circumstances which would probably have 
 earned a charge from a big spotted cat; and we got it at 
 all only because it finally went up a tree before a single 
 
368 APPENDIX 
 
 hound which it could have caught and killed without the 
 slightest difficulty. 
 
 How fortunate we should be if only a sufficient num- 
 ber of big-game hunters would train themselves, as the 
 best field naturalists do, to habits of close and accurate 
 observation ! It is fairly astonishing to see how often the 
 professional hunter — not only the white man, but the 
 Indian — is either ignorant or utterly misinformed as to 
 all the habits of the game except those which he must 
 know in order to kill it. This was eminently true of the 
 sport-loving nobles of the middle ages. They constantly 
 repeated the same baseless fables about the very animals 
 which they spent their lives in hunting. Thus, for in- 
 stance, Gaston Phoebus writes much that is sheer fan- 
 tastic nonsense about the wolf; his account of the wolf 
 does not begin to compare in interest and value with 
 that of a modern French hunter and close observer, Le 
 Couteulx. 
 
 I wish, for example, that I could get trustworthy 
 information of any instance in which the male wolf or 
 coyote has remained with his mate and. joined in the care 
 of the cubs. In the cases of breeding wolves which have 
 come to my personal knowledge, the mother has been 
 alone, and no male has had anything to do with the care 
 of the family. Some " nature writers," whose writings 
 are mere agreeable fiction, describe the father and mother 
 wolves as living together and caring jointly for the fam- 
 ily; but they also describe this arrangement as existing 
 among cougars, with which animal, as I know, it does 
 not obtain at all, the male having no share whatever in 
 
APPENDIX 369 
 
 caring for the young, and not associating with the female 
 while she is herself caring for the litter. My own obser- 
 vations tend to show that the same is true of wolves ; but 
 these observations are not numerous enough for me to be 
 sure on this point. 
 
'M