202 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 5, 1888. 



THE BOCK CLIMBERS. 



XV. — BLOOD ON THE SNOW. 



rpHE Eock Climbers sat at the foot of a great morainal 

 ridge and ate their lunch. They did not remain 

 long, however, for the air was cool, and their garments 

 were damp with perspiration from their morning's ex- 

 ertion. Resuming their loads they started again to 

 clamber further up the glacier. The tracks that they had 

 followed led up the ice before them over the soft, new 

 snow, and with the glass could be seen to turn up a side 

 canon and disappear behind a rocky point clothed with 

 low spruces, which ran out from the mountainside. In 

 mountain climbing it is usually safe to follow game trails, 

 for the game always picks out the easiest way to go up or 

 down the slope, and besides it is easier to walk along a 

 trail than over the rough rocks. Acting on this idea, 

 which is familiar to every mountaineer, the men followed 

 the direction of these tracks, which they several times 

 crossed. They were very fresh, seemingly not having 

 been made an hour before. Jack and Yo differed as to 

 the animal that had made them, the former believing 

 them goats, while Yo was quite positive that two sheep 

 had passed along. 



The men had come quite near to the rocky point about 

 which the tracks passed, and were walking along up the 

 snow incline, when Appekunny, who was further to the 

 left, suddenly stopped and called out: "Siya\ look at 

 that ram!" His eyes were fixed on the point, but neither 

 Yo nor Jack could see from their point of view anything 

 that warranted excitement. Quickly stepping to Appe- 

 kunny 's side, however, there came into view as fine a big- 

 horn as it is often given one to see. Standing there on 

 the white snow, outlined against the sky so that every 

 detail of form was distinctly seen, with his head thrown 

 back as he gazed more in curiosity than alarm at the 

 three strange creatures that approached him, he was a 

 picture of unconscious grace, beauty and wildness. At 

 Appekunny's first word Yo had loaded his rifle, and as 

 the ram appeared he said, "How far, Jack?" "About 200," 

 was the reply, and Yo dropping on one knee, fired.' The 

 animal was standing half quartering toward them in such 

 a position that his head and neck were in line with his 

 shoulders, and a shot through the shoulder would pierce 

 either heart or lungs. The rifle was therefore aimed at 

 the neck just below the throat to allow for the drop of 

 the ball. The smoke hung for an instant, and when the 

 rifle was lowered the animal had disappeared. "Did any 

 one see where the ball struck," asked the shooter. "Not 

 I," said Appekunny. "Nor I," said Jack, "but," he con- 

 tinued, "I thought he turned kind of awkward, as though 

 he was hit." "Well," said Yo, "let's go up there, any- 

 how." 



They hurried up the slope, and before they had gone 

 far a cheer came from Jack, who was in the lead. "Hur- 

 rah, Yo. Blood on the snow, and lots of it." Yes, sure 

 enough, they could see even at that distance that the 

 pure white mantle of snow was splashed with great 

 blotches of red blood. The ram was evidently hard hit. 

 The dogs, which had been smelling excitedly about since 

 the shot had been fired, were now cheered on in the 

 hope that they might catch the animal if he were clam- 

 bering up the rocks, and bay him, so that another shot 

 might be had; and after a moment they took the trail 

 and disappeared around the point, and two or three mo- 

 ments later their fierce barkings told that they had over- 

 taken the ram. The men followed at their best pace 

 Jack and Appekunny running around the point, while 

 Yo allowed his impetuosity to get the better of his judg- 

 ment, and clambered directly up the rocky ledge toward 

 the place where the dogs were evidently holding the ani- 

 mal. After a hasty scramble up the cliff, he found him- 

 self breathless among the spruces above it, but here he 

 had to plunge through drifted snow up to his waist for 

 some distance, and by that time all sounds of conflict 

 had ceased. After a hard struggle he reached the bare 

 rocks beyond, and there found a bloody trail where the 

 game had passed along. Two hundred yards ahead of 

 him were his companions, looking along the mountain- 

 side beyond them, and as they saw the belated rifleman 

 approaching, they sat down to wait for him. 



"Have you seen anything of him?" asked Yo as he 

 came up. 



" No," replied Jack, " but the dogs followed the trail as 

 far as that point of rocks over there, and he evidently 

 turned down the hill." 



"He is our meat, I guess then," said Yo, "and if 

 he keeps on bleeding like this he certainly cannot go far. 

 We can't go after him and then come back here, and I 

 have not got through with this glacier yet. Suppose you 

 take my rifle, Jack, and follow the trail, and get the 

 sheep. Appekunny and I will go back and see some 

 more of the ice, and when we get through will come 

 down and join you. What do you say ? " 



"That will suit me," answered Jack, "hand her 

 over." 



The rifle and half a dozen cartridges having been given 

 him he started along the trail, and was soon seen working 

 his way diagonally down the mountain over the rough 

 precipices. Yo and Appekunny now turned back to the 

 glacier, and as they went, saw everywhere evidences 

 that the sheep was severely wounded. In the edge of 



the snow near the spruce were the tracks where the dogs 

 had bayed it, and it had run backward and forward. 

 The blood seemed to flow from it not by drops, but in a 

 constant stream, and additional evidence that the wound 

 was vital — if such evidence was needed — was furnished 

 by the fact that the blood flowed from the forward part 

 of the body. Through the side canon, the two men 

 walked down over this tributary of the ice river to 

 the comb of the main lower ice, and out nearly 

 to the middle of the glacier. Before them, and on either 

 hand, it lay spread out far and wide, but behind them, 

 or west, the cliff and the steeply inclined mass of ice 

 cut off the view. They could see far down the valley 

 of Swift Current into the flat at the foot of the lower St. 

 Mary's Lake, where their camp had been, but in every 

 other direction except the east the view was cut off by 

 naked snow-patched walls of rocks whose summits were 

 eroded into curious points and pinnacles. A little to the 

 south of west, nestled high up above them in a little 

 hollow of a tremendous rock wall, lay a vast mass of sky- 

 blue ice, reminding them of a time when the thickness 

 of the glacier upon which they then stood was so much 

 greater than at present that it covered even the towering 

 peaks and walls which now form the summits of these 

 mountains. Venturing close to the cliff over which the 

 upper ice is slowly flowing to join the lower mass, the 

 two men looked down into a seemingly bottomless abyss, 

 where the ice had melted next to the rock, but they did 

 not care to venture too close to this on the hard, slippery 

 snow, for without ropes the outlook for one who might 

 fall into this crevice would be rather dismal. 



The sky had become overcast and the winds had begun 

 to howl among the peaks, and there was every prospect 

 that a heavy snowstorm was at hand. Moreover, it was 

 growing late and Yo and Appekunny must hunt up Jack 

 before starting for camp. So, after having exposed a few 

 plates, they took their way along the mountainside in the 

 direction which their comrade had followed. 



Meantime Jack had followed the bloody trail along the 

 mountainside, which at a little distance looked absolutely 

 vertical and impassable, but along which an active climber 

 could readily work his way. The trail tended constantly 

 down the hill and was as plain as ever. Now and then 

 on passing over a bank of snow, it would be seen that the 

 quarry was growing weaker and staggering in its gait, 

 and once or twice it had stumbled and fallen and slid 

 along on its side over the snow, leaving a broad smear of 

 crimson on its otherwise unsullied whiteness. The little 

 dog Babbette had accompanied him, and after he had 

 gone more than a mile he rounded a point of rock and 

 came upon the sheep which was lying down with lowered 

 head, and in front of it stood Babbette licking its nose in 

 very friendly fashion. Jack, who wanted to give her some 

 training in hunting, ordered her to attack it, which she 

 promptly did, nipping its heels and barking, and the ani- 

 mal rose to its feet, staggered a few steps, fell over a 

 precipice into a snowbank at its base, walked out of that 

 to another cliff over which it fell, and when Jack got to 

 it again, a little later, it was lying in the snow, dead. 



Yo and Appekunny had kept along the mountain until 

 they reached the descending blood trail, and then keeping 

 a sharp lookout for Jack, presently saw him standing by 

 a fire in a little valley below them. The fire was a pretty 

 good sign that he had some meat, and the two men began 

 to feel hungry. When they had worked their way down 

 to within a few hundred yards of him, zigzagging this 

 way and that over the steep ledges, Yo hailed him and he 

 came up the steep to meet them. 



"Well, Yo," said he, "you've killed the best piece of 

 meat in the mountains." 



"I hope you have put some of it on the fire then," was 

 the reply. 



"That's what the fire is there for," said Jack, "Come 

 see the ram." 



A short distance away, near the edge of the snowbank 

 out of which Jack, with infinite labor, bad dragged 

 him, lay the animal. He was indeed a beauty. Five 

 years old, his horns were not very large but were per- 

 fectly symmetrical and unbroken; his coat was perfection, 

 thick, smooth and glossy, dark brown with its pure white 

 rump patch. He was short of limb, strong of back, 

 sturdy and stout, plump and round as a bull elk in early 

 September, in fact, a picture such as one seldom has an 

 opportunity to look at. 



The work of preparing him for transportation to camp 

 was undertaken at once, and while that was being done 

 a few ribs of the deliciously fat meat were roasted over 

 the fire. It was manifestly impossible to take the meat 

 down the mountain that night, and the next day must be 

 devoted to that task. The animal was so heavy that if 

 all three men had been unencumbered with other loads 

 they could not have carried him down, for it was esti- 

 mated that partially dressed he would weigh from 250 to 

 3001bs. Jack indeed, as the stoutest man of the three, 

 did start with the forequarters cut off close to the shoul- 

 ers, but he staggered under this weight only about 50yds, 

 and then dropped the load, and taking off the forelegs 

 and shoulder blades came along with those. 



When they started to return to camp it was down the 

 side of the mountain which bounds the valley on the 

 north, for it seemed as if along these ledges an easier way 



of descent might be found than over the precipice at the 

 foot of the glacier. They had gone but a little way when 

 they passed a ravine in which lay a long snowbank, 

 hollowed out beneath, and into this snow cave Jack went 

 to look for a drink of water. Presently he called to Yo, 

 who was waiting for him, and asked him to come in. Yo 

 entered, and found himself in a most beautiful ice grotto. 

 The snowbank was evidently very old, and the rushing 

 waters of spring had tunneled under it while it had 

 melted from above, so that a heavy roof of ice stretched 

 across the ravine from side to side. The grotto was eight 

 or ten feet from floor to roof, thirty feet wide, and per- 

 haps a hundred long, and a drift of snow which had 

 blown in from the opening at its upper end lay in the 

 bottom of the ravine. The roof seemed not to be more 

 than eight or ten inches thick and admitted the light 

 freely. It was beautiful sky-blue, and had melted from 

 below so as to form a curious pattern of squares, the 

 angles where these squares met being lower than any 

 other parts of the roof, and from each of these points 

 hung, as pendants, clear drops of water. This pattern is 

 like what is called in architecture fanned vaulting or 

 fanned pendentives, and its effect was very lovely. 



Leaving this interesting spot, the two men hurried on to 

 overtake Appekunny, who was striding along before them. 

 They made their way down the mountain without much 

 difficulty, only two or three bad ledges being encoun- 

 tered on the way. In the snowbanks which they were 

 constantly crossing, the fresh tracks of goats were often 

 seen, but it was so late that the travelers paid no atten- 

 tion to anything except the picking their way along the 

 ledges. The sun had long hidden itself behind the west- 

 ern peaks, and before they reached the level of the valley 

 it was quite dark. Notwithstanding this, they made 

 good time through the timber, and at length reaching 

 the camp, threw down their loads with a sigh of relief. 



And presently, when the fire was blazing and the fat 

 sheep meat sputtering in the pan and the coffeepot steam- 

 ing on the warm ashes, they talked over the incidents of 

 the day, and all agreed that a wonderful amount of en- 

 joyment and interest .had been compressed into the hours 

 that had elapsed since their start that morning. Yo. 



Every person who is sufficiently interested in the National 

 Park to do his share toward securing 2^'otection for it, is in- 

 vited to send for one of the Forest and Stream's petition 

 blanks. They are sent free. 



MY ONLY BUFFALO HUNT. 



IN the year 1872 came my only opportunity to hunt 

 buffalo. It was even then very evident that they 

 were fast passing away, and we were obliged to go 100 

 miles further for meat that year than did the hunters of 

 the year before. The latter part of June was selected for 

 the start, for, although we would be obliged to dry or 

 jerk our meat on the hunting grounds, all reports from 

 the game country agreed that the buffalo were steadily 

 moving westward, and should we wait until fall the 

 game would be beyond our reach. The hunting ground 

 selected was the country lying between the Republican 

 and Solomon rivers, to the westward of a line running 

 south from old Fort Kearney. 



Our party consisted of four men, with two teams of one 

 span of horses each. M. and his son, E., a young man of 

 some twenty years, were with one team, while Y. and I 

 drove another. All were tenderf eet, except Y., who had 

 been a night herder with a wagon train on the plains for 

 years. Through the lack of saddle animals all the hunt- 

 ing had to be done on foot. M. and E. brought small- 

 bored muzzleloaders, in which they appeared to have 

 great confidence. Y. carried a Spencer carbine, with 40 

 rounds of ammunition, while I was armed with a Galla- 

 gher carbine, ,56-cal., using 40grs. of powder. These 

 were the best arms obtainable, and the choice of the most 

 utterly worthless gun in America seemed to lie between 

 the Spencer and the Gallagher. The point-blank range of 

 the Gallagher was 100yds , and, while at 50yds. it would 

 sling its bullet a foot above the center of the target, at 

 150yds. the ball dropped a foot or more below. It was, 

 therefore, necessary to get, if possible within just 100yds. 

 of the game. The Spencer appeared to have a somewhat 

 flatter trajectory, judging from the few times during the 

 targeting of the carbines when we found means of ascer- 

 taining which way the balls really went, but as its bullets 

 did not seem to be at all partial to any particular direc- 

 tion, all were well satisfied when at the close of the hunt 

 its 40 rounds of ammunition had actually killed two buf- 

 falo without crippling a single hunter. 



Our road ran westward until at a point on the Platte 

 River a few miles west of Fort Kearney, it turned south 

 toward the Republican River, distant some fifty miles, 

 where we forded the stream and camped on its southern 

 bank. The hot weather obliged us to travel slowly, and 

 the one hundred and fifty miles of the journey consumed 

 a week's time. After leaving the Platte River, the road 

 entered the sandhills, and as the country looked well 

 for hunting, E. and I started to hunt together, on a line 

 parallel with the course of the slow-moving wagons, in 

 the hope of finding an antelope. 



After an hour's tramp over the sand a fine buck ante- 

 lope was sighted feeding quietly in a little hollow sur- 

 rounded by sandhills, and we proceeded to stalk him as 

 quietly as possible. A low sandhill to the leeward of the 

 unsuspecting quarry covered our advance until within 

 100yds. While still 300yds. distant from our contem- 

 plated victim, the eager boy stopped, and in a hoarse 

 whisper asked, "How are we going to get that antelope 

 to the wagon after we have killed him?" "We will not 

 have any trouble in carrying him." I replied, for I had 

 been there before. We crept to the top of the sandhill, 

 cocked our guns and slowly raised our heads above the 



