Pec. IS, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



383 



Straightened himself out like u greyhound and was out of 

 sight before I could pull a cartridge, Iliad missed him 

 clear, 1 kavfc never found our to tins day how I ■-.. in - 

 malic- such n had sliol . but I suppose I ha I. some I wig that I 

 did not notice in aiming tamed tile bullet from its course, 

 following the buck's trail for a couple of hundred yards 

 and finding no blood and no sign of a letup in the length 

 of his jumps, but rather the contrary, I gave him up and 

 i :id along the ridge westward, stopping every hundred 

 steps or so to listen and look about me. Fresh signs of deer 

 were abundant, and I fell that, I would not ha\e far to go 

 before getting a chance to redeem myself. 



I had stopped to watch the amies of a black squirrel thai 

 was chattering and scrambling uboul in a little spine tree 

 near by, when, a hundred and fifty yards ahead of me, 1 be- 

 came aware of something having crossed n little vista in the 



pines. Looking Sharply I saw the heads of two young !•■ 



peering out from behind the turned-up roots of a fallen pine. 

 It was a long shot, but, with a rest against a tree-trunk. I 

 wax fortunate enough to "plug" the biggest of the two 

 through the head. ~ The other made n few bounds and 

 Stopped, evidently watching the struggles of his fallen coin- 

 panion. Standing with both his fore and hinol quarters hid 

 by trees, I knew it would be almost impOSSlhle to make a 

 III niiiiug shot, but I was still "hot" over my first failure, and 

 determined to shoot at everything of the deer kind. 1 must 

 have hit this fellow in the paunch, as I found little blood ou 

 going to where he stood, but 1 noticed two or three 

 , i-ii, lies" of masticated grass and leaves. He gave a sharp 

 'hint:'' a- lie- bullet struck, and went, down the mountain 

 and (ml of sight, like a flash. It is almost, a waste ol I, one to 

 follow a deer shot in this way, as there is something in the 

 nature of such a wound that seems to keep them going as 

 long as life lasts, so I betook myself to the rallen one, Ten 

 minutes sufficed to disembowel it and cut off the hind 

 quarter-. Get ling them on my back with the legs projecting 

 in front and with 'rifle laid across, I started toward the low- 

 lands, satisfied at having got fresh meat, and intending to 

 strike l lie Park bv going down Grindstone Creek, winch 19 

 the first stream west of Bl.iektail (about two miles), to where 

 it crossfts the trail, and taking the latter back to camp. I 

 could have reached there in half the distance by taking a 

 straight course, but did not, faucy climbing over "down 

 timber." loaded as I was. 



1 found the way down the creek free from that sort of 

 Obstruction, and I was making good time along a well-used 

 deer trail when, on coming to the apex of a little knoll, at. a 

 bend in the stream, 1 heard a sound as of a slone rolling and 

 rattling down hill. I stopped, dropped my burden and 

 crawling to the edge of the hill, looked up and down the 

 creek and along the opposite slope, but could see nothing. 

 Still t'ne sound continued, and with such regularity that I 

 knew it, could not he what 1 at first thought, namely, my 

 crippled deer struggling up the hill and dislodging stones 

 that rolled down and si ruck on the boulders in the creek 

 bed. I think I must have strained my eyes for fifteen min- 

 utes trying to get a peep at the cause of the disturbance, and 

 every minute the sound wn.s repeated three or four times 

 Suddenly 1 heard a sneeze, another and another; such as I 

 had often heard my big dog give when digging for wood- 

 chucks back in old "Shnt-a-gee," he would get, something 

 "up his nose." Then there was a moment's silence, followed 

 by a crackling of the dry willows under the tread of some 

 hirge animal, and with a'half-bound hnlf-wullnw up out 'of 

 the creek lied came ;> black bear as big as a two-year old 

 steer. 



My readers must not accuse me of exaggerating in making 

 this last assertion, for our Colorado black bear is not the 

 little fellow that, can climb a free ami make a nest in a hol- 

 low thereof; or that will run into a hollow log and defy the 

 pursuing hounds until "massa" brings up the darkey with his 

 ax. to chop him out and knock himon tbe head. 'No, sh>| 

 lie is ordinarily as big as the cinnamon, standing full-grown, 

 three feel tit the shoulder, and weighing 600 to 800 pounds. 

 The dozen dogs that can make him hunt a hole don't live; 

 and the loolhaidy man that would tackle him with an ax- 

 would solve the mystery of the great hereafter in about thirty 

 seconds. Well, this fellow looked a good deal bigger than 

 ■•our old cow," and oh! how fat and sleek, as he sat and 

 licked his Chops and looked about hi.n with his wicked little 

 pig-like eyes. I forgot for a moment that I had a gun along 

 with me. and iheu I began to consider whether it would be 

 "policy" to shoot at him. 1 thought, how beautiful his glossy 

 black hide would look, tanned with the claws on, and lying 

 in front of my library fire; and again, how very uninviting 

 my own hide would look torn to ribbons by those same 

 claws. 



Finally it occurred to me that these varmints don't climb, 

 and seeing a tree within ten feet of me that I could get up 

 very easily in case of nceessilv, I just looked to see that my 

 revolver was all right, and my mi'ud was made up. While T 

 was getting up my courage and planning my possible, re- 

 treat, ilr. Bear had concluded that lie was hungry again, 

 and turned to resume the occupation, the sound of which 

 bad first attracted my attention, viz., turning over the stones 

 along the creek and lapping up the spiders, ants and stone- 

 bugs (I don't know the scientific name of the sling-jointed 

 creatures always found under stones in damp places) that his 

 pawing disturbed. As he turned to go down the bank agaiu 

 1 fired, hardly knowing where 1 aimed; but as h proved, 

 making a most, excellent" shot. Olil then there was what my 

 English friend would call a "devil of a row." That bear just 

 howled aud roared louder than any four menagerie lions 1 

 ever heard. He rolled, bit at bis flank, tore up the ground, 

 tried to climb up the steep bank, aud as often fell back. He 

 shook I he bloody foam from his snapping jaws, always 

 keeping up that strong er\ of agony aud rage that 1 shall 

 never fa-get, till, exhausted, his brute life w T ent out with a 

 final de-sparing howl. 



It WBI full ten minutes there and thereafter when I stood 

 over his mighty carcass, having approached him by going a 

 tew steps at a lime from tree to tree until Dear enough lO See 

 plainly that there was no sign of life, when 1 cannot tell you 

 how bold ami important 1 felt, nor how suddenly I realized 

 what a job I should have to remove n is splendid hide aud 

 "pack" it to camp. As 1 was pulling my knife and steel, 

 and wondering Whether I could complete the task before 

 dark, I heard, above me on the hill, and above the racket of 

 the swift stream, the exclamation, '.Moy-iek! Tig-owinl" 

 dlello. friend) and looking up 1 saw John coming on a trot. 

 He had killed a big bull elk and while skinning it said he 

 heard my two shots, and thinking I might liavemn "afoul 

 of" a grizzly, as he had seen "heap of sign," he made haste 

 to join u, e, only taking of the huge elk half the liver and a 

 couple ot gtrfps oE tenderloin. Out knives soon stripped 

 black bruin and left his carcass for the wolves aud vultures. 

 John said he would weigh "bout sick hundert" (600). My 



bullet had struck him in the right, rump, high up and near 

 the backbone, and going forward passed through the point 

 of the heart, lodging in the skin on his breast. 



Rolling up Unhide, John took the "sling" from his gun, 

 and buckling it around the bundle shouldered it without a 

 word, ami only waiting for me to do likewise with my sad- 

 dle of venison, w< struck for camp, where we Found Our 

 companions getting supper, and wondering, as they said, 

 •'what all that shooting was about." They had seen three 

 or four deer, but got' a shot at nothing but a, lynx. Whtojje 

 hide— "Pi all's" trophy —lay salted and roiled up near the 

 camp-fire. Jcif had caught some twenty-five small trout 

 and lost several big ones, saying "the hooks were too little," 

 and he "just, wisht he had' some o' them catfish hooks he 

 sed to use in old Pike." when they used to go "juggin." 



After supper, a pipe, about, the fire, made a pleasant clos- 

 ing scene, to our tii-t day in the wilderness, and about the 

 hour that "city folks" are beginning the passing of the 

 evening, we five tired mortals were sleeping a sleep the 



veeiness and soundness of which they know not. Nest 



eek I will give you a description of the scenery of the Park, 

 tin- legend "of the "Sphinx Rock" that guards its eastern 

 entrance^ a brief aecouutof the wonderful Steamboat Springe, 

 and our luck among the mountain sheep and bison in the 

 Flat Top Range. Yampait. 



Dbkvbs, Colo., Nov. 23. 



LIFE AMONG THE BLACKFEET. 



BY ,t. Wtl.I;ARD SOH.IJI.T55. 

 THIRD PAPEK. 



n^HE Blaekl'eet are pre-eminently a prairie people. The 

 JL great canons and wooded slopes of their mountains are 

 unknown to them. On the prairie, however, from the Dask- 

 atchewan to the lellow stone, there is not a streamlet or 

 slough by which they have nol pitched their lodges. The 

 reason for this is thai it has always been much easier to kUJ 

 buffalo than mountain animals, and as buffalo have always 

 been found near their camp, they have never been obliged to 

 clamber over the mountains in search of food. Again, the 

 mountains have always been inhabited by hostile tribes, 

 which, although no match for the Blackfeet on the prairie, 

 could totally destroy them once they penetrated the timbered 

 defiles of their mountain home. 



In a former number of the Forest and Stream the writer 

 has described the manner in which Ihe Blackfeet used to 

 catch buffalo.* Another ingenious method of hunting was 

 the PIs-lsis-t.se -kay for catching eagles. Perhaps of all the 

 articles used for personal adornment, eagle feathers were the 

 most highly prized. Thev were nol only used to decorate 

 headdresses, garments and shields, but they were, held as a 

 standard of value. A fe-w lodges of people in need of eagle 

 fcatiii n-s would leave the main camp and move up close to 

 the foothills, where, eagles are generally more numerous 

 than out on the prairie. Having arrived at a good locality, 

 each man selected a little knoll or hill, aud with a stone knife 

 and such other rude implements as he possessed dug a pit in 

 the top of it large enough for him to lie in. Within arm's 

 length of the mouth of the pit he securely pegged a wolfskin 

 to file ground, which had previously been stuffed with grass 

 to make it look as life-like as possible Then, cutting a" slit 

 in its side, he inserted a large piece of tough bull meat and 

 daubed the hair about the slit with blood aud liver. 



In theavening, when all had returned to camp, an eagle 

 dance was held in which every one participated. Eagle 

 songs were sung, whistles made of eagle wing-hones were 

 blown, and the ""medicine rneu" prayed earnestly for success. 

 The next morning the men arose before daylight, and 

 smoked two pipes to the sun. Theu each one told his wives 

 and all the women of his family not to go out Or look out of 

 tie- lodge until he returned, and not to use an awl or needle 

 at, any kind of work, for if they did Ihe eagles would surely 

 scratch him, bul to sing the eagle songs and pray for bis 

 good success. 



Then, without Bating anything, each mau took a human 

 skull and repaired to his pit.'. Depositing tin; skull in one end 

 of it, he carefully covered the mouth over with slender wil- 

 lows and grass, and lying down, pillowed his head ou the 

 skull, and waited for the eagles to come. With the rising of 



*We qui 



">:'■ 



i ^ir. Kehultz's paper in the Fork; 

 K apo I happened to be camped -\ 





- fri 



of the 



" said 



I, after I hast regained my breath, "tell me all about that pU-tcan. 

 How did you make it; how many bu/Tnlu did you catch inoneday; 

 and how mimy winters ; !t ;o did von use it.;" 



The old mail's story was as follows: 



"la those days we had no guns, but used to kill many buffalo with 

 bows and arrows; and sometimes we used the pis-Win. When we 

 made a pis -ktm we first found a. little open glade i v ihe ,-i ■.-,- 1- .■. here 

 the prairie came down and ended in a cut bank as high as a man. 

 l-voin t H-- iir bank «v built n strong fence clear around the edge of 

 the glade. We used big trees to make the fence logs oi-l sticks, and 

 anything rhat -would help lo keep the buffalo from treating out. 

 Then wc built two lines of stone piles far out on the prairie two lines 



■'Tli 



iilo 



ewe intended to make a drive we always had a 



1 sung the buffalo songs. K'.-M ,.,.. , 



l„'.';.pl,";. ; i. a ,,'-, and h'id' behind t.hi-"sb..iie 'pil.-V on the prairie "" The 

 medicineman « no was going to call the buffalo put on a buffalo 

 robe, hair side out, and siliing down smoked one pipe to the Sun. 

 'n--.-. :.-si.ok-,- in his wives and all the women of his lodge, saving. 

 •You mum not go outside until 1 return. You must not look out of 

 the doorway or any hole. Take this sweet grass," giving it to his 

 ln.a.1 wife, -and every hole while burn a small part of il so that the 

 Sun will be glad. Pray that we will have good luck.' Then h 



mounted a 



iVhen lit 



md 

 ilUTalo, saying, -i:,,, -■■!,: E-ne-uA." [meaning 

 "HulTalo: '1 The huffalo was first alii tic soared: then they began 

 to follow him slowly, and soon ran after him as fast as they could. 

 Theu the medietas man rode into the shoot, and after the buffalo 

 hart also run in he jumped out to one side of the stone piles, and the 

 kerd passed by. The paople behind kept rising up and shouting, 

 wnich made them run all the faster. The buffalo in i he head of tbe 

 band were afraid of the stone piles, and kepi right on in the middle 



• kille, 



The 



Sill- I 1,11 



MP- tails, 



Tbe alK 



iV-gunm 



i hu well-; 



v plating slicks on 

 led upamougtne people-' 

 every respect. As hue ins lSi,', the 

 ii tie- Upp r Marias. Mr. Jos. Kipp. 

 tells me that in l-iu he saw the Pe- 

 Ire head of buffalo in this manner, 

 es were made in one day. About 

 erage drive, though sometimes more 



the sun came all the little birds, the good-for-nothing birds; 

 the crows, raveus and hawks, but with a long sharp -pointed 

 stick the watcher deftly poked them olT the wolf skin, The 

 raveus were most persistent in trying to perch on the 

 skin, aud every tinia they were poked olf would loudly 

 croak. Whenever an eagle was coining the watcher would 

 know it, for all the little birds would fly away, and sum th- 

 an eagle would oorue down with a rush and light on the 

 ground. Ofteu il would sit on the ground for n long time 

 pruning its l\ tubers aud looking about, Poring this time 

 the watcher was earnestly proving to the skull and (o the 

 sun to give him power to eap'ttre'the eagle, :unl all the time 

 his heart, was beating so loudly thai he thought the bird 

 would surely hear it. "At last, when the eagle had parched 

 on the wolfskin and was busily plucking at the tough bull 

 meat, the watcher would cautiously stretch out his hands, 

 and grasping the bird firmly by the feet, quickly bear it 

 down into the cave, where he crushed in its breast, with his 

 knee. 



Tbe deadfall was another contrivance the Blaekfeet, had 

 for Catching animals, especially wolves. It is possible, how- 

 ever, that the early fur traders taught them how to make it. 

 The running noose was extensively used at the PTs-kans for 

 catching wolves. Antelope were caught in a manner like 

 that practised by some African tribes; long lines of busbes 

 were stuck up* on the prairie like the initial latter j>, the 

 lines joining on some sharp knoll or hill, where a large pit 

 had been dug and covered over with light poles and grass; 

 a man was concealed behind every bush; a few men then 

 drove a band of antelope into the mouth of t he > , and from 

 Hierc they were quickly scared on into the pit, after which 

 they wore killed and the meat distributed among the hunters. 



Meat was ihe principal diet of the Blackfeet, " They either 

 ate it fresh by boiling or roasting it, or they dried it and 

 made it into' pemmican. which consists of finely-pounded 

 dry meat, grease and berries. Every summer vast quantities 

 of berries were dried aud preserved for winter use. Black- 

 foot delicacies were pemmican, dried tongue and back fat. 

 marrow guts and "boss ribs," bul perhaps the greatest of all 

 delicacies was an unborn buffalo calf. 



In ancient times the Blackfeet cultivated but one plant, 

 the tobacco. This plant is not indigenous to the Northwest 

 but it is easy to conceive how the Blackfeet came to possess 

 it. The tribes were not always at war with each other; 

 treaties were often made which remained unbroken for 

 years, and during these years of peace a livery intertribal 

 commerce was eat-ried on. Thus in time the tobacco plant 

 was carried from tribe to tribe westward to the land of the 

 Blackfeet, and perhaps even across the Rockies to the tribes 

 on the Pacific Slope. 



The writer was told not loug ago by an old Crce Indian 

 that his people used to make yearly '"journeys from the north 

 Saskatehcway to the Yellowstone to exchange their furs 

 with southern tribes for paint. A good illustration of In- 

 dian commerce. 



ON THE TRACK OF THE APACHES. 



IN the autumn of 1883 my business led me to make a visit 

 to quite a noted mining district in the Sierra MadrG; 

 Though, as 1 say. the place was noted, yet il was hard to get 

 to, and few persons would undergo the trouble and expense 

 ol such a journey without some important object; so the 

 reputation of this widely spoken of but little known land 

 had swelled beyond its desert, An explosive old German 

 gentleman, whom 1 will call Dr. Schmidt, was my com- 

 panion, and to drive our wagon and do menial service we 

 had a rnoso named Juan. 



Now most imtzoH commence their service in a cheerful 

 frame of mind, knowing that in the service of foreigners 

 they get better pay aud more food than at other times; then, 

 ns the unusual strain of continuous labor begins to tell upon 

 them, they lose their merry air, at last becoming as surly as 

 porcupines, when it becomes necessary to treat them with 

 decisive authority. 



Juan, however, was different from other mozoK. He be- 

 gan the trip in the most profound and speechless sulks, and 

 maintained a consistent demeanor throughout, Fortunately 

 Ihe choleric doctor was well fitted to manage this kind of it 

 servant. 



Starting from Hermosilio, with its tropic gardens, its 

 orange-planted plaza, its imitation of French hotels, and 

 that crude attempt at material progress which is aroused in 

 a lazy race by the arrival of a, railroad line, we drove nut- 

 wagon as far as a town called Soyopa. This in itself was 

 no slight feat. The road, ill-defined at the best, had just 

 undergone the washing of the rainy season. The rank herb 

 age that springs up after the raius had often quite blotted 

 out the old wheel tracks, and the gullies among the. hills bad 

 been carved and sloped so much by the running water that 

 travel was dangerous. 



The Doct*r said he knew the way, and was always ready 

 with his orders in cases of doubt. He did not, indeed, rehab 

 argument in this matter of geography, and it was only after 

 we had lost ourselves very completely several times" that I 

 plucked up courage, now and then, to intervene for the sav- 

 ing of life or some other worthy purpose. 



In one place we hatl reached a hill, very steep, composed 

 of crumbling rotten granite, and about a hundred yards long. 

 The horses could gel no foothold, the brake did not work, 

 and to drive down was certain ruin, yet the Doctor proposed 

 that Juan should take that, course, and the stupid Mexican 

 was about to fall a sacrifice. 



My persuasion aud command (for this proposed feat would 

 have destroyed not Juan only, but the wagon as well) in- 

 duced my companions to alter the plan. 



The horses were unhitched and led down. Theu the 

 Doctor and I tied the hind wheels with ropes to lock them, 

 and held back on. oilier ropes that we fastened to the wagon. 



Juan took the end of the tongue, which he could both use 

 for guiding and as a brake, by pressing it in the ground. 



The device answered very well at first, and the procession 

 started with the slow majesty of a triumphal car. Soon the 

 speed increased; the ropes all broke; the. Doctor and I sat 

 violently down on the hillside, and Juan wisely dodged, 

 while the wagon went, almost at one bound, to the bottom, 

 and was slopped by the tongue running into the ground. 



Straugely enough, nothing but the ropes was broken, and 

 we were only detained by having to dig four feet of tongue 

 out of the soft earth with a hatchet for our tool. Our last 

 day's drive was up the bed of a stream, at times half a mile 

 through the water hemmed in by rocky banks, at times 

 among the boulders on the margin," and at" times having the 

 good luck to strike a bit of a cut-off over a little peninsula. 

 We were well pleased to call fifteen miles a day's travel and 

 to get to Soyopa late in Ihe afternoon. 



There are a good many maps of Northwestern ilexico (I 



