346 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 13, 1887. 



week before, when the dogs caught a swift and killed a 

 large wildcat. He further said: "If you can get a couple 

 of good trailing hounds or a couple of greyhounds, bring 

 them along." So the day before Christmas, a little before 

 daybreak, I was on the depot platform at Syracuse, grip- 

 sack and two guns in hand, while three dogs, a grey- 

 hound, a trailer and an English setter were winding their 

 chains around my legs. A setter is at present of no use 

 in this country excepting as a retriever, there being no 

 quail nor chickens here, or at least not in sufficient quan- 

 tity to afford sport. I have heard of one lock of quail 

 having been seen, and it is said there are a few chickens 

 in the sandhills. The country is settling up very fast, and 

 when grain fields become plenty the chickens will no 

 doubt be here. Dan met me a t the depot and divided the 

 impedimenta with me. That day we went over to his 

 cousin's place, Mr. Alexander Rinekart, a thorough 

 sportsman, an accomplished story teller and a pleasant 

 gentleman. His dogs were as follows: Fanny, a black, 

 smooth greyhound, slim and tall, a great rustler and said 

 to be able to run just as fast as she wanted to, but some- 

 times quit; next is Belle, Belva A. Lockwood, for short, 

 a grayish brindle, rough greyhound, not so fast as Fanny 

 and only eighteen months old, but a stayer. Then the 

 trailers Buster, a very business-looking tan and black 

 foxhound, and Gal, his fitter sister, both rather below the 

 medium size, but with the right look. The stock had 

 been kept in the Rinekart family for many years, in 

 central Iowa, where coons, foxes, Avolves and wildcats 

 had been the game they followed. Here there is enough 

 game, but the ground is usually too dry to hold the 

 scent. 



The next day, Christmas, Aleck, Dan and myself went 

 out for a hunt. My dogs, of course, being tenderfeet, 

 did not show off to great advantage. The greyhound, 

 Blue Bob, kept close to us. The trailer seemed to think 

 it the dryest country she had ever struck, but the setter', 

 a son of Bob Lincoln out of Cora, only a year old, ran to 

 his own complete satisfaction; there were no fences to 

 bother, and the fact that there were no birds larger than 

 shorelarks didn't seem to trouble him in the least. 



We rode over the prairie till 1 o'clock without striking 

 a rabbit, though both my friends declared there were 

 plenty of them about, and there are. Finally a jack 

 lumped out of a bunch of long grass and ran directly 

 back through the crowd of dogs. At first it ran with 

 that hop, skip and kick style of going peculiar to the 

 animal, while its ears were held erect, but as the dogs 

 got straightened out its ears were laid down fiat and it 

 took that gait that is such a puzzler to the best grey- 

 hounds. Belle had a very good start and at once ran by 

 the bird dog and trailers. Fanny had been off at one 

 side rustling, and when she saw the chase joined, and 

 running low to the ground, caught up with and passed 

 Belle, and when she might have easily caught the rabbit, 

 stopped and stood indifferently, while the more honest 

 Belle kept on running till the jack reached open ground 

 and got out of her sight. The trailers staid back, work- 

 ing out the track, while Bob, who had run over a hill out 

 of sight, had got lost and rattled, and when we finally 

 got sight of him was nearly a mile away and going in 

 the opposite direction. By calling and shooting we finally 

 drew his attention and called him back. About 3 o'clock 

 we saw four antelope feeding a mile away. Getting behind 

 a ridge we rode till within a quarter of a mile; then leaving 

 horses and dogs, we crept forward to the top of the ridge 

 and sighted the band about 330yds. away. We began to 

 shoot, and could see the lead from the 45-75s cut the dirt 

 "all aro and them," but they went on, as did the dogs, 

 which, hearing th? shooting, had come up. A coyote 

 was running a half mile to the right, but the dogs were 



East recall, and when they came panting back, the wolf 

 ad gone. Another jack chase, in which the rabbit again 

 got into rough gr< >und and escaped, and we rode back to 

 town. My friends were disappointed in the outcome of 

 the day, but I was satisfied, f o : I was very new in West- 

 ern hunting, and had never seen either jack rabbit or 

 antelope wild. 



The week following we were out several times, and the 

 dogs killed four or five jacks. In fact, nearly as often as 

 Black Fan decided to ran she caught a jack. My dog 

 was beginning to get the combination, though on straight, 

 long runs he could by no means hold his own with the 

 trained dogs. New Year's day four or five others joined 

 our party for a day's hunt. The day was windy and cold; 

 during the forenoon the dogs only jumped one rabbit, 

 and that holed. The additional members of the party 

 began to think of dinner and rode home. One, a young 

 fellow of 19 or 20, staid. An hour after the others had 

 gone we jumped a jack, and then began the prettiest 

 chase of the season. Fan for once ran honestly, with 

 Belle a good second. The jack started for a straight run, 

 but Fan soon turned him , then Belle turned him again, 

 and he ran back through the trailers; again and again he 

 doubled; often he would start on a straight course as if 

 to go clear, but in answer to our shouts Fan would gain 

 on him and he would double again. Finally, when we 

 had almost given him up and the dogs were running in 

 that heavy, dogged way that greyhounds show near the 

 end of a long chase, Fan coursing close, the jack essayed 

 to dodge, but she was too quick and killed. When "we 

 came up with our ponies the dogs were lying down ex- 

 hausted and refused to eat the rabbit. Of course when 

 we saw those who had gone back early in the day we 

 painted the glories of that chase in the brightest colors. 



Two weeks were used in chasing jack rabbits, trying 

 for anteloj>e, and getting ready for our trip into" the 

 southern country, where Youngblood had evidently found 

 his buffalo, and where we reasoned there must still be a 

 few left. None of us had ever seen a wild buffalo, and at 

 least one of the party had remarked that he would walk 

 200 miles barefoot to kill one. The old-timers of Syra- 

 cuse warned us that there would be great danger from 

 b izzards that might catch us out on the fields away from 

 water and where the snow would cover the cow chips 

 that would be our fuel supply, and that winds might blow 

 so that it would be impossible to pitch our tent or that 

 would tear it loose when pitched; but like the misguided 

 and unfortunate youth whose motto adorns so many 

 patent contrivances, we paid no attention to words of 

 wisdom, but our cry was not excelsior but buffalo. 



Alex Rinehart agreed to go and take his wagon and 

 team of stout mules. Nig was, as the name indicates, 

 black. He was high-lived, gamy and "mighty on:ertain." 

 It was a feat calling for much careful diplomacy to clioib 

 into the wagon behind Nig; those of you who haven't 

 climbed into a pratrie schooner, behind a flighty mule, 



cannot appreciate the delicate nature of the undertaking. 

 The foothold afforded by the double-tree is insecure and 

 liable to start a rattling that will set in motion the kick- 

 ing apparatus of the aforesaid mule. Then the hand hold 

 afforded by the bow is not firm "nor convenient, and you 

 are conscious at the moment that you swing around to 

 get under the projecting cover that the bow is liable to 

 let loose and drop you in a helpless heap on the long-eared 

 and light-footed creature. We generally went around to 

 the other side of the team and crawled into the wagon 

 behind old Bill, no older in years than his mate, but of 

 a sedate and gentle nature, and with that gravity of de- 

 meanor that is popularly associated with advanced age. 

 Alex also took along his riding pony Willie, rather taci- 

 turn and reserved in appearance, but warranted to track, 

 catch, throw, skin and eat a buffalo against time. 



The 6th of January we started south, we took pro- 

 visions for three weeks (and staid five); eight dogs fol- 

 lowed the wagon, four greyhounds, three trailers and 

 the bird dog. When we came back four followed still. 



Our trip took us through the No Man's Land and into 

 the Pan Handle of Texas, as far as the South Canadian 

 River. J, W. ANTHONY. 



Svracuse, Ka nsas. 



BRUIN IN THE FOLD. 



OF one way that bears hunt sheep I can speak; and in 

 stating that method I am bound to ascribe a large 

 measure of intelligence to this apparently dull, doltish 

 creature. The bear can certainly calculate and plan and 

 carry out in most admirable perfection the conception of 

 design. Whether a bear can catch a sheep in straight 

 chase, but prefers an easier method, or whether he over- 

 estimates the ability of a sheep to hold out in a run, can- 

 not with certainty be averred; but tactics that would do 

 credit to a military general he can handle to completion. 



It is to be presumed that he at first approaches with m- 

 ten to take one. The flock, however, flee upon his near 

 approach. He then cuts the shorter arc of the circle 

 which the flock describe as they run, for, if inclosed in a 

 given field, the frightened sheep will run around and 

 around close to the fence. 



The bear, making a loud, shrill noise, between a blow 

 and a whistle, hastens into the course of the fleeing flock 

 and waits for their approach. It need not be said that a 

 flock of sheep will stop every 100 to 400yds. to look back, 

 turn around and stamp a cowardly defiance or "Please 

 don't you dare to come for me." This halt gives bruin 

 time to place himself or to crawl up from the rear as they 

 are faced about. The flock, after standing from one to 

 ten minutes, will turn tail and run again. Oh! the racket 

 that 100 sheep can create, the noise is much like distant 

 thunder— on, on they go, and upon the enemy they surge 

 — but this is a mistake, and very obv ously so" to the Miss 

 Sheep in th? front rank which the cruel catcher does take 

 — a sad mistake. 



Many were the nights that I participated in the exciting 

 work of warding off the bear. For hours we ran and 

 stood and listened and tried to house the fold. Fre- 

 quently we could have shot into the bulk of the bear had 

 we been certain that he was himself. On such a night as 

 this the bear will come out for field work — never when 

 there is a good moon — it is risky business to attempt 

 shooting in a field where from half a dozen to a score of 

 men and boys are scattered, all peeping at what may be 

 the "bar," some squatting and peering, seeking advan- 

 tage of the uncertain light to be able to see the brute and 

 say "Oh! boys, I viewed him square." 



On one of those evenings I returned home at, say, 9 

 o'clock, in early autumn. At varying distances from the 

 old farm back to the big woods lay a solid one hundred 

 acres in primeval grandeur. These wild lots were the 

 connecting links for the bears. Upon driving up to the 

 house that sound as of a distant waterfall mingled with 

 heavy foot falling, resembling, somewhat, a whirlwind 

 passing quickly a pile of empty barrels, that sound al- 

 ready more than familiar, frightened the team and ex- 

 cited me. 



The first person to come out in answer to my "Hello 

 there" was greeted by "Grab them by the heads, they're 

 frightened at something" — which grabbing the foreman 

 of the farm did, saying, "Whoa, whoa there, what in 

 thunder's got into you— hold on there, you — by gosh, it's 

 the bear — come and hold your own team — say, it's danged 

 mean to — whoa, you confounded — I say, I'll let them go 

 to— gosh! if I'm agoin' to be bucked like this — oh! what 

 a blasted sham — wa'n't I fooled by his dogoned 'Grab 

 their heads' — I never thought of" — the appeal and the 

 soliloquy combined was ended so far as I was concerned. 

 My anxiety was to hasten in and secure my pick of the 

 armory, doing which I bolted out followed by half a 

 dozen men and boys, all armed, calling "Jim, which way 

 did — oh! thunderashion, what tripped mef The next 

 man stumbling upon the sprawling heap exclaims: "My 

 conscience, you scared me — I thought sure I was the 

 lucky fellow" to find the bear, and I wanted to swap off 

 my luck, too." The hindmost coming up wants to know: 

 "What have you fellows found, anyway?" Then "Hello 

 Jim, I say, where's the tar — ." "Hush, hush, I say, you 

 fellers, I say, be quiet," interrupted a voice, as the owner 

 of it steered off, according to his own guess, knocking his 

 bootsoles against every protuberance on the sod. Run- 

 ning, stopping short, creeping and peering, advising and 

 whispering in hoarse goose voice; more running and fall- 

 ing occupied the first quarter of an hour. A man falling 

 and quickly scrambling up imitated quite closely the 

 noise made by a bear catching a sheep and the sheep kick- 

 ing desperately in struggles to break away. Hence a man's 

 falling was always listened to with eagerness, and in- 

 deed, such a one sometimes produced quite a panic. 



During harvest the fire had defaced the surface of this 

 lowlond pasture, gouging out hollows many inches deep. 

 There, scattered as we were, we stood gazing and won- 

 dering whether our quarry had gone, when my cousin 

 Jack, the most adventurous and I dare say the most fear- 

 less of the outfit, made noises indicating that he was 

 about in the middle of the meeting. He had ventured 

 alone and unarmed toward where the flock had come in 

 their circling; where the flock stood stamping, staring, 

 bleating and constantly changing places, moving, if pos- 

 sible, into a more compact bunch. The ground was be- 

 strewn with rails, the cross fence liaving been snatched 

 down ahead of the fire's encroachments. Carefully step- 

 ping over rails, into and out of those burnt patches, Jack 

 pressed forward among that quivering mass of terror, 

 staring into the dim foreground as the sheep Were doing. 

 Each sheep that he approached gladly welcoming him as 



deliverer, crowded back to press against Jack's hand or 

 leg, as it. bleating low and trembling, stares steadily for- 

 ward. Meanwhile Jack had gained the front with half 

 the flock at each side, those nearest rubbing their heads 

 trustingly against him. the bold deliverer. Peering away 

 into the gloom with hands on knees. Jack fails to locate 

 the crouching or crawling beast of prey — nothing bears 

 even a semblance to a black bear, unless those burnt 

 places, one of which is witlrin two yards and almost 

 directly in front. A timid person might have made a 

 whole "flock of bears" out of those spots, but not so Jack. 

 He did not imagine some or all of these dark spots live 

 beasts crawling forward— no, he wasn't worth a cent on 

 imagining. See! hasn't that one slid closer there in front? 

 No, why should it— how could it ? What do those excited 

 sheep smell or think they see? Alarmed beyond control 

 the foremost turn to flee again as that black burnt spot 

 rises, as Jack is now more eagerly straining his eyes to 

 see far beyond it what causes the late alarm, glides for- 

 ward with a single leap and lights upon the sheep which 

 is standing jammed against Jack's leg. 



Oh! what a rattle of fleeing feet amid the scattered 

 rails, of the struggling sheep in the arms of the bear, 

 both flat upon the ground, and of Jack expressing him- 

 self just as he felt and in utter absence of premeditation. 

 The hideousness and blood-curdling effect of that guttural 

 roar makes my flesh creep yet when I think of it. His 

 profanity and prayers were" mixed with a shocking dis- 

 tinctness. Not a man in the field breathed or had the 

 power to move while this unearthly bellowing lasted, 

 then every one ran excitedly to where we hoped to rescue 

 Jack if he was not hugged to death , or scraped bare to 

 the backbone or devoured quite. The hope was like that 

 of Uncle Lisha's rescuers to deliver him and put back 

 enough of his "innards to do a spell." Jack, ashamed of 

 his outcry, was now so silent as to increase our misap- 

 prehension. He supposed that we knew how matters 

 were; that he was unhurt; and we supposed that matters 

 were as his sounds made them seem to be. With palpi- 

 tating hearts we gathered to where we all expected poor 

 Jack was being appropriated. 



The anxiety and suspense of those moments in which 

 we supposed Jack was being gobbled, and the nervous 

 haste with which we did a week's wishing in a minute, 

 toucliing the exact whereabouts of the unfortunate Jack, 

 cannot be put on paper. 



When found he swore. "The brute knocked me down 

 and tramped all over me, and rolled on me, tryin' to 

 gather me and a sheep at the same time. I do' know how 

 I'm scratched, but I guess there isn't anything broke." 



Whether Jack's roaring frightened off the bear, or 

 whether the sheep's activity explains the escape, no one 

 can more than guess. The excitement, however, was 

 doubly tlrrilling throughout the next two hours while we 

 were housing the fold. The escape of the sheep Jack ex- 

 plained by saying, "O, boys, he was a big, greedy devil; 

 he wouldn't be satisfied with one of anything." We 

 laughed heartily at Jack's classification of himself. 

 Although he unintentionally put himself into the sheep 

 class, he felt sheepish enough, indeed, over the ado he 

 made as a witness of the attempt at sheep stealing. 

 When one teased him about roaring more in a minute 

 than several bulls could, Jack became aroused to an extent 

 where he lifted his voice slightly again — because to hint at 

 his being cowardly or frightened was to touch his tender 

 place — but the more justification offered for trying to 

 scare off the beast from the struggling sheep, and the 

 surprise connected with the ground rising and coming 

 straight at one, the worse, each attempt being rewarded 

 by a fresh chorus of laughter. Jack was doubly ' 'took 

 dbwn." Huron. 



GAME IN THE NORTHWEST. 



SAINT PAUL, Minn., April 30.— Up herein this new 

 Northwest my mind is continually reverting to my 

 old home in northern New York, and I feel a little of that 

 old inclination to look over my kit and get everything in 

 readiness for my annual spring fishing trip among the 

 Adirondacks, and I cannot help including in my thoughts 

 many familiar faces who have as regularly as the season 

 came put in an appearance for the sport, and all eager for 

 the fray. My last trip was up Bog River to Mud Lake 

 and surrounding water, and it will always carry with it 

 my pleasantest recollections of the Saranacs proper. I 

 have had much finer sport at Lake Placid with a troll 

 than in any other Adirondack waters, for my trips there 

 were always in company with a congenial spirit who was 

 never too tired to fish, who never grumbled at the weather, 

 and who was always satisfied. I am now seeking 

 "greener fields and pastures new" in the "Middle West, ' 

 and being sure that I am the gainer by the change, so far 

 as variety in the sport is concerned, I feel_ a spirit of 

 generosity pervading my being, and I am going to say to 

 my friends in the East, read my letter, or letters, as the 

 case may be, and then decide if I am not the gainer, and 

 if you are satisfied that I am, come out here and enjoy it 

 with me. I will give you such information and such 

 references that I shall not be obliged to say, as some of 

 the writers upon Adirondack stories have said, "Ask 

 John" (Rev. W. H. H.) and "Ask Cort" (L. J. S.) to prove 

 myself reliable as an authority. 



This is not written to benefit any rsilroad or set of 

 guides. It is simply for the benefit of those who wish to 

 try some other locality, where they can kill not only 

 white-tailed deer, but blacktails, elk, moose, cinnamon, 

 silver tip, grizzly and black bears and cougar or moun- 

 tain lion. From October until late wild geese and ducks 

 are very plenty along the line of the N. P. Railroad. At 

 Dawson you come into the goose belt, where they have 

 their cover when flying north or south, and there is a 

 roosting or resting place th re where geese stop to rest, 

 and they can be seen from the train. A method is em- 

 ployed here by the natives for getting them, which is 

 this: They wait until after dark, and t^en approach 

 them stealthily and kill what they wish with a club. 

 They scatter some, but not far, and though the practice 

 has been employed since the road was built, they have 

 not been f riglr ened enough yet to give up resting there. 

 It would furnish magnificent sport vith either shot or 

 ball when they were preparing to alight. Shooting deer 

 by jack light" is tame work, as is also clubbing them to 

 death after they have been driven to water by dogs, and 

 it is no satisfaction to a true sportsman to kill nothing 

 else but deer year after year. Here the game is so plenty 

 that one can get any variety he chooses and several kinds 

 in a day's tramp. 



