368 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



rOor. 38, 1893. 



THE SAGINAW CROWD. 



Pllgrimafre of 1892— IH. 

 iContmued frovi page SSOO 



Wb got up that morning feeling stiff and sore. Before 

 leaving camft we made our plans for the morning shoot. 

 Henry, Paddock and the Kid were to take the saddle 

 horses and keep abreast of those of us that were to beat 

 the thickets. At the ford we were all to wait until Ferd, 

 Bigelow and the Doctor could get to their stands on the 

 upper side of the cover of the river's edge, for we were 

 certain that this time in driving bend No. 3, coupled with 

 the racket made yesterday, the deer would surely desert 

 the cover and attempt to cross to the opposite patch of 

 woods, that much resembled the one we were to drive. 



Jack had cultivated a wind-gall on one knee, from his 

 long ride on the broncho, and was too lame to beat the 

 brush with the rest of us, and so claimed the right to join 

 the fat men's contingent, viz., a good soft seat somewhere 

 in the open or on the river, while we athletic sprinters 

 drove out the deer for the sedentary marksmen to 

 slaughter. To prove his lameness he had limped a great 

 deal, and groaned more from the time he took in the lay 

 of the land and saw the amount of manual labor needed. 

 What he exhibited as a dangerous blister we promptly 

 labeled "alkali dust markings of the purest type." As he 

 could draw no sympathetic tears he devoted his spare 

 moments in camp to the medicine chest. Amica and 

 vaseline, intersjsersed with liberal applications 

 of Pond's Extract, soothed his injured joint 

 for the time being. 



Our plan was upset somewhat by Jack, who 

 groaned and limped more than ever, and de- 

 clared that he would not go with us; but after 

 waiting long enough at the ford for the others 

 to get their stands, and Henry not appearing, 

 we started out to find out the reason, for we 

 wanted all the help possible to do the driving, 

 when Jack appeared on Henry's horse, having 

 concluded that though he was too lame to walk 

 he was not too lame to hunt if he could ride. 

 We left him to pick out any j)lace he wished, 

 and went ahead without regard to where he 

 would go. It seems he followed the bluffs; 

 and, fastening his horse to a sapling, mounted 

 the hill, where he could command a most ex- 

 cellent view of a large strip of the timber land 

 below. 



I had no sooner worked my way through 

 the first patch of brush than a deer jumped 

 up before me and disappeared in the opposite 

 thicket. I did get a snap shot as he tore 

 through the opening, not ;!iOft. wide, and, as 

 usual, missed; but by the time we had worked 

 our way pretty well into the thicket, cannon- 

 ading became quite general along the line. 

 We called to one another so that there would 

 be no mishaps in the way of stray shots, and 

 by the time we had reached the open glade in 

 the center, seven or eight deer had been 

 jumped. Those on horseback, and at the ex- 

 ti-eme right, had not come out yet. 



Standing with Seib and Henry, we suddenly 

 heard cannonading over toward the bluffs, and 

 then the most unearthly screeching and holler- 

 ing one ever heard. We could not make out 

 who it came frpm, imtil we thought of Jack. 

 We were uncertain whether he was being de- 

 voured by a bear or was simply trying his 

 lungs to produce the echoes that reverberated 

 from cliff" to cliff and from gorge to gorge. 

 He certainly was not lame in his lungs if he 

 did have a lame knee. EZnowing that some- 

 thing was wrong, we hurried in that direction, 

 and when we arrived the balance of the party 

 were there and having a drink with Jack. The 

 pretty little flask, gold-lined, that his wife had 

 given him for his birthday, held about enough 

 snake antidote for a full-grown man for one 

 snifter; but it demonstrated that Jack's heart 

 was in the right place, if there was not enough to go 

 round. The Judge, with sleeves rolled up, and arms 

 covered with blood, was cleaning a nice big buck that 

 had mounted the hill in Jack's face, literally attempting 

 to run over the invalid mai'ksman. He was a nice fellow, 

 and we were glad of Jack's good luck, but cussed a little 

 bit to think it had come to him so easily while the rest of 

 us bai been drawing ourselves tlirough almost impene- 

 ti-able thickets. Jack told just how he did it; he said he 

 saw him break cover and come directly toward him. He 

 put the ride to his shoulder and kept sight of the old 

 fellow until he started up the hillside, and when he came 

 within 40} ds. he shot and hit him hard; this we found 

 out to be ti-ue, for he shot him in one of the front feet 

 and broke off' a j)art of the hoof. He said the deer kept 

 right on until he was opposite, when a second shot 

 knocked him over. There was no doubt about the second 

 .shot being a good one, for it went through the buck's 

 heart, it was the first deer Jack had ever shot at, and 

 the inartistic attempt to bleed him with the fancy hunt- 

 ing knife was not a glowing success. He did cut his 

 throat, but right at the roots of his tongue, disfiguring an 

 otherwise handsome antlered head. 



We were all in better spirits; we now had meat in 

 camp, and Jack could have the best the earth afforded. 

 Henry volunteered to pack it to camp, and we knew that 

 that night, when we came in tired and hungry, Harrison 

 would have a haunch of venison for us, roasted to a turn. 

 New life was imparted to us, and we were ready again 

 for the fray. Jack was not nearly so lame, but con- 

 cluded he would wait imtil Heniy came back with his 

 horse, and then follow along the bluff so as to be on hand 

 by the time we ^rove out the next deer. He stated this 

 arrangement as 'a matter of fact, and the rest of us ac- 

 quiesced. Forming into line again, we started back to go 

 over part of the same ground diagonally, at the same time 

 taking ia a strip of territory we had not before driven, and 

 that would, we thought, send some of the deer to the fat 

 men we had guarding the runways by the river. This 

 wooded island seemed to be literally alive with deer, they 

 were like rabbits, and would run out ahead of us, circle 

 round, and go into the thicket again; but it seemed im- 



possible to make them leave cover. Strung out as we 

 were in a long line, we could catch glimpses of a deer 

 from time to time, as they stopped for an instant before 

 going out of sigkt; and, in fact, they succeeded in keep- 

 ing out of sight very fairly anyhow, for the thickets were 

 dense, with smaU. openings that the deer would cross in 

 an instant. We all of us had several snap shots in the 

 brush, with no result, and at noon we gathered at the far 

 side of the strip in a nice open glade shaded by the cot- 

 tonwoods that here were very large. 



Our lunch was spread on the grass, and we were all 

 enjoying it, when Jack jumped up and said he saw a deer 

 pass a little way from us, and he was certain that he saw 

 where it lay down in the tall gi-ass. We laughed at him, 

 but he took up his gun and hobbled in that direction. We 

 paid no attention to him, but suddenly a report rang out, 

 and then two or three more shots in quick succession, and 

 then another of those wild Comanche yells broke the still- 

 ness of the forest, and we knew Jack had done something 

 desperate again. We jumped to our feet in an instant, 

 and found that Jack had succeeded in killing the doe that 

 the day before I had wounded by breaking its foreleg. 

 Sure enough, the deer was lying down where Jack 

 imagined, and as it jumped up his first shot clipped a hole 

 through one of its ears, the second shot probably missed, 

 and the third was fatal. Here was this lame duffer, who 

 had never fired a rifle or seen a deer before, doing all the 

 execution. Two or three members of the party were old 

 hands at deer shooting, and none of us were chickens in 

 that line, and we felt rather chagrined to have a tender- 

 foot, with his new and imsoiled paraphernalia, do us up 

 in this way. As Jack's thimble was empty one of the old 

 stand-bys "was produced, and we all drank to "old Section 



CAMP ON THE LITTLE MISSOURI. 



37's" health. The Kid volunteered to take the deer to 

 camp, and after resting, and smoking, and snoozing for 

 an hour or two, we concluded to make a drive in bend 

 No. 8, the next wooded patch further up stream. Jack 

 said he had had glory enough for that day, and that he 

 would take the beach and slowly wend his way back to 

 camp. That night he told us his experiences, for we had 

 hardly got under cover on the ojjxjosite river bank, nor 

 had he more than got around the bend of the river when 

 we heard two or three shots from him in quick succes- 

 sion. 



It seemed that as he rounded the little point he saw a 

 deer standing in the shallow water drinking. He said to 

 himself, "Now, here's my luck. A dead open-and-shut 

 on this one. Won't I have the boy's green with envy to- 

 night?" The deer had not yet seen him: and, lying down 

 full length on the sand, and taking careful aim, chuckling 

 to himself all the time, he let go. The deer gave a sudden 

 start, threw its head in the air, and came directly toward 

 him on a slow walk. It was not 10yds, away, and Jack 

 plumped three more bullets at it before it turned. It 

 then sprang into the woods; and, strange as it may seem, 

 turned and looked back. Jack blazed away at him, 

 seemingly near enough to touch him with his hand; but 

 he had done his good shooting earlier in the day, and this 

 was such an easy one that he missed it slick and clean. 

 It took the conceit out of him a good deal, and, though 

 the roasted venison that night tasted might>^ good, there 

 was a Uttle unpleasantness m its flavor to Jack whenever 

 we reminded him of the last deer. 



But about our afternoon drive. More bear tracks were 

 seen in the sand, and the buHberry bushes on bend No. 3 

 were stripped and broken more than at any other place 

 we had yet seen. There must have been a dozen bears 

 recently feeding on this ground. A mountain lion ti-ack, 

 too, showing where, in the soft mud, one of these panthei-s 

 had crossed the river, made it rather uncomfortable 

 traveling in the brush that was higher than yom- head, 

 and so thick that you could scarcely see an arm's length 

 ahead. Once through the thicket, however, the groimd 

 was better, open grassy glades interspersed with growths 

 of heavy timber. We knew we had started deer, for we 



had heard them but had not seen them. One big buck a 

 little later came up in front of the Doctor, or, in other 

 words, sltmk out of the thicket and sneaked away through 

 the tall grass as though he waa crawling on his knees. 

 They have a way of doing this if they think they are not 

 seen, so that they crouch to half their height. Here was 

 the Doctor's opportunity, and he regrets to this day that 

 he did not count three, and see hair a little more plainly 

 through the sights before he fired. Soon a shot near the 

 bluffs, and a welcome "halloo" tells us that some one has 

 bagged something. It proves to be a deer killed by Pad- 

 dock, who, in company with Briggs, is hunting near the 

 outer edge. As Paddock has the saddle horses near by, 

 later in the day the deer is easily taken into camp. This 

 is the thu-d and last of the afternoon; in fact, we are all 

 satisfied that we have enough, and know that, aside from 

 having all we will want to eat, we have plenty of venison 

 to take back to the car to g^ladden the hearts of some of 

 those who have not been with us except in memory. 



The Judge, Seib and myself had been through the cover 

 toward the center, and in going tlirough an especially 

 thick piece of cover we suddenly come out upon an open- 

 ing, and, lying in the center, are the remains of a fuU- 

 grown steer that has recently been killed by the bears and 

 devoured by them. What great big fellows they must 

 have been. On either side they have scooped out hollows 

 so that they could lie down and gorge themselves to their 

 heart's content. They must frequent these covers during 

 the night time, and at break of day go back into the 

 mountains through the draws and canons that every- 

 where seam the frowning crags back from the river. We 

 have no desire to peneti-ate this soUtude after a silver-tip, 

 the impression in the sand left by "old Moccasin Joe" has 

 cooled our ardor as bear hunters. Even the 

 Judge, who has killed dozens of the black fel- 

 lows in Michigan, has lost no bear. He had a 

 good deal of conceit up to this time in what he 

 would do, and what he would not do; he has 

 not much to say on the subject now. 



We came across runways every little while 

 that denoted that the timber was full of deer, 

 and at certain crossings of the river the tracks 

 were as thick as sheep tracks in a farmer's 

 barnyard. The country was literally alive 

 with them, and it was simply a question of 

 how many we wanted to kiU, not how many 

 would we see. That night, in camp, stories 

 were told by all of us on the remarkable shots 

 and misses of the day. If we had killed all 

 the deer we shot at we should have had four 

 times as many as we could use, and after all, 

 we were better satisfied that it had turned out 

 as it did, three deer in one day, and without 

 dogs or "ti-acking snow," is good enough for a 

 Michigan man. 



That evening, lying on the grass beneath the 

 fire-lighted trees, Paddock lold us a few of the 

 incidents of his life. Like most really brave 

 men, he was reserved, and had very little to 

 say regarding anything he had done himself; 

 in fact, he had not commented on our shoot- 

 ing, or told us what he could do or had done; 

 but, from the way he knocked over the one 

 deer that day we knew he saw no good in 

 wasting ammunition. We were in good spirits 

 that night, and the feeling pei-vaded all in 

 camp, 



in substance the following is as I remember 

 Paddock's story. The old man was quite a 

 picture as he sat, weather-beaten and bronzed, 

 before the camp-fire, with his back propped up 

 against the saddle. Puffing away at his pipe, 

 he started in with the remark that the Indians 

 would not bother him much, ' 'They always 

 leave me alone," he said, "in fact we don't get 

 along very well together, and consequently 

 keep apart. I have not been west of the 

 Mississippi for thirty years or thereabouts. I 

 was quite a young man, living at a little town 

 :. on the western frontier of Wisconsin, when 



^ news came of the massacre at New Ulrn. My 



oldest sister had been married but a few years 

 before, and had moved with her husband to 

 that place, and I knew that I was needed at 

 the front. I stai'ted at daybreak and rode till 

 I overtook General Sibley, in command of the militia, 

 making the ride without a rest or barely stopping. As 1 

 rode down one horse I either exchanged with the consent 

 of some farmer, or, if I could not do this, I took a horse 

 anyhow; I was bound to get through in the shortest pos- 

 sible time. When at last I did overtake the soldiers I 

 learned the story of the terrible affair. My heart sank 

 within me, for my sister was among the captives, and her 

 husband had been killed. The troops were moving as 

 rapidly as possible to overtake the Indians. Ihelped bm-y 

 over SOU of the victims of the massacre. One that has 

 not seen the work of tliese red devils knows nothing 

 about it. It makes my blood boil when I think of how 

 some people in the East stick up for the Indians. Little 

 children were found that had been nailed alive, with 

 outstretched arms, to the sides of buildings, while their 

 fathers and mothers, killed and horribly mutilated, were 

 found around the burned buildings, and all we could do 

 for them was to give them the best burial possible. Aged 

 and infirm females were killed by the roadside, and those 

 that were able to be taken along were carried off into a 

 captivity worse than death," 



1 do not remember all the details; the number of troops 

 or who was there, but his criticism of General Sibley's 

 manner of fighting Indians was not at all favorable to 

 him. He said: "He employed West Point tactics too 

 much, and when the Indians found themselves hard- 

 pressed, a few Indians would appear in front as if to 

 make an attack. Immediately the wagons would be 

 drawn up in a circle to be used as breastworks, and then, 

 if the Indians did not attack, as they certainly would not, 

 some of the soldiers would be sent out against them, only 

 to find that it was a ruse to delay the pursuers till the 

 main body, with all the camp supplies and captives, could 

 get another start; and it would be several days before 

 they could be overtaken. The miUtia chafed under this 

 mfiitaiy restraint, and the volimteers, composed of far- 

 mers and settlers of the frontier, frequently dashed 

 ahead, and had a skirmish on their own account. I be- 

 lieve it was a detachment from the Minnesota 8th , that 

 was sent north with some prisoners of war; for this 

 happened at the time of our little unpleasantness down 



