26 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
Jan. 8, 1898.] 
and can then be shot "with less trouble. They must be 
. hit in a vital spot, for if the bullet passes through the 
back ribs or abdomen they are liable to run out of sight, 
and if a leg be broken they Avill sometimes gallop for 
miles. I have known some sportsmen who followed on 
horseback and speared them when a leg was broken, but 
I always waited for them to lie down (which they will 
soon do if not pursued), and then stalked them again. 
The part of the chest Avhich must be struck to insure 
bagging, even wnth a .450 express ball, is not more (at 
the utmost) thaii 6in. deep and Sin. wide, including the 
spine. The first buck I ever killed appeared behind 
some tall bushes, when I was walking across an open 
plain. He gave me a fair standing shot at 200yds., but 
although the bullet of the two-grooved rifle went clean 
through both shoulders he ran about the same distance 
through the bushes before dropping. 
On another occasion I fired at a buck facing me 150yds. 
distant. The bullet (loz. in weight and driven by 62grs. 
of powder) struck almost exactly in the center of the 
breast, passing out through a hind quarter; yet the 
animal turned round and disappeared in the bushes. By 
carefully walking exactly against the wind I found him 
lying dead 80 or looyds. further on. (Several kinds of 
deer or antelope always run, if possible, straight against 
the wind when wounded, and I have repeatedly recovered 
them by following in the same direction when there was 
no bleeding or any track visible.) Occasionally on bare, 
open plains, I have succeeded in approaching w'ithin 
.s^iooting distance of a herd of antelope by walking 
slowly round them as if intending to go past, while 
looking in any direction except toward them, and stoop- 
ing down like the native cultivators, as if pulling up 
weeds, every time the animals showed signs of uneasi- 
ness. On occasions like these the hunter must be very 
careful not to go for even an instant out of their sight 
in a ravine or behind a rock or tree. If he do so, the 
herd will suspect an ambuscade and gallop away. 
But to return to the narrative: On the following morn- 
ing B. and I went out soon after davbreak, and nearly 
in the same place as on the preceding evening I found 
another buck and obtained a standing shot at about 
looyds., killing him in has tracks with a bullet behind 
the shoulder. 
In the afternoon I went out again, B. walking to some 
likely-looking ground in an easterly direction, while I 
went toward the rocky hills in the north. While passing 
over some cultivated land I noticed a herd of antelope 
quite 500yds. away. They at once became alarmed- and 
started off, many of them, as is their habit when fright- 
ened, repeatedly springing perpendicularly 8 or loft. into 
the air. 
Not very long after\vards the sound of a rifle shot came 
from the east, and in a few minutes the heads of some 
animals appeared over a swell in the plain, moving rap- 
idly in my direction. There was no place for concealment 
except a slight hollow, in \yhich I sat down. My head 
and shoulders were above this, but the cover of my pith 
helmet and niy clothes of thin cotton being all dyed with 
the slate color called in India khakee, there was not much 
chance of being noticed when keeping perfectly still. 
. One the animals came at a gallop, a herd of ten or 
twelve gazelles leading, and a fine blackbuck some yards 
in the rear going with the long, lurching strides the 
speed of which is so deceptive until you try to follow on 
a fast horse. They passed obliquely at about 150yds., 
and raising the rear leaf sight for that range I saw the 
front bead on the shoulder swung forward until it ap- 
peared the buck's own length in front of his nose, and 
pressed the trigger. The bullet, as I afterwards found, 
struck at the rear edge of the right shoulder and passed^ 
out in front of the left, the buck galloping about 6oyds.* 
and falling apparently dead. I had no idea that any man 
was in sight, but a native who had been hidden behind 
some large trees close by suddenly appeared and began 
running towards the buck, which at once showed signs 
of life, struggled to his feet and commenced walking 
away. Not knowing at the time where the bullet had 
struck, I rushed forward to within a snort range and 
fired the second barrel, hitting the back of the head be- 
tween the ears. 
Although animals which drop in their tracks some- 
times rise to their feet, this is the onl}'. instance I can 
remember of one doing so after running some distance 
before falling. 
B. met me at the bungalow and said that he had shot 
a gazelle with the Westley Richards carbine, but lost 
■faim and had also narrowly escaped killing a native who 
was cutting grass a long distance beyond. The man called 
out in terror, and B., on going to where he was sitting, 
found that the bullet, after drilliing a hole in the gazelle, 
had passed through the man's hair close above one ear. 
(On, a subsequent occasion when standing on the border 
of a wide, sandy plain I killed a jackal with this carbine 
when using the leaf sight for only 150yds., yet the 
bullet knocked up the dust quite 800yds. further on. 
Bullets with hollow points I had not then heard of, and 
therefore discontinued using the carbine for game shoot- 
ing, being afraid, of injuring some herdsman in charge 
of cattle or goats, who might happen to be out of sight 
in the jungle.) 
On the following morning we sent the servants with 
the tent to a camping ground several miles on the road 
toward home, B. and myself trying our luck once, more 
'in the country around the Dawk Bungalow. After walk- 
ing a long distance I came upon a blackbuck about lop 
yds. away and had an easy shot at his shoulder. At the 
xeport of the rifle lie bounded perpendicularly' fully 6ft. 
and galloped away untouched through the trees, while I 
was .too astonished at having missed to fire the: second 
barrel before he had disappeared. When reloading I 
found that the'isoyds. leaf sight had by some accident 
been raised;' so that the bullet had passed severak inches 
above the animal's shoulder. 
While returning to . the bungalow I suddenly saw what 
appeared'to be a beautiful, calm lake close in .front, , and 
.could notieel convinced that it was only a mirage until 
T looked back and found that there was a similar re- 
semblance to a lake. The illusion was so perfect that the 
bushes, : tufts of tall grass and palm frees were all re- 
flected upside down as if on real water. 
.After breakfast B. and I rode to the camping ground, . 
tlie .heat having become so intense that, although the 
tsnt had a ^pwble roof, w?- were glad during the middle 
of the day to keep our heads cool by frequently pouring 
water 'over them. 
Late in, the afternoon I strolled over a nlain covered 
with thorny bushes and masses of gneiss rock 6 or 8ft. 
high. I found a herd of gazelles with one buck antelope 
among them. He appeared to be only 3 years old, for the 
horns had but three spiral twists, while the hair was just 
beginning to turn a black color on the sides of the chest. 
I fired at lOOyds., when the gazelles galloped out of 
sight, followed by the buck, who soon lagged behind, 
evidently hard hit. Creeping through the bushes I had a 
shot at the same distance as before, when he ran ol¥ in 
quite a lively manner. Following for some distance, I 
obtained a third shot, also at rooyds., and with a similar 
result. For the fourth time T stalked within sight and 
found him 80 or 90yds. away. At the moment when the 
hammer of the lock was falling he saw me and darted 
forward so that the bullet, instead of hitting the shoulder, 
went through a little below the kidneys. The buck then 
cantered away, and, passing out of the bush jungle, dis- 
appeared over a ridge of ground nearly half a mile dis- 
tant. I followed as quickly as possible, and, walking cau- 
tiously to the tor of the ridge, found him lying down 
about 2oyds. away with the head still erect. His back 
being towards me, I aimed between the ears, but only 
succeeded in digging out one horn at its base. This 
stunned the buck for a moment, so I held down his head 
by the remaining horn until the coolie hurried forward 
and bled him. Even then he retained so much vigor as 
to kick at the man and tear the sleeve of his cotton 
jacket from wrist to elbow. I never saw another in- 
stance of such extraordinary vitality, and am quite un- 
able to account for it. The first three bullets had struck 
not more than 2in. from each other, forming an equi- 
lateral triangle at the rear edge of the left shoulder. 
We rode to another camping ground on the following 
morning, and on the day after returned to the canton- 
ments, having bagged nothing more except a couple of 
gazelles, which I shot as food for the native servants. 
A native tanner preserved the skins as well as could 
have been done by the best English taxidermist, and 
stufifed the four uninjured heads very cleverly, using the 
hollow bottoms of wine bottles for the eyes. 
J. J. Meyrick. 
ESGL.\NU. 
Two Deer Hunts. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
How slowl}^ the time seems to pass to the boy, espe- 
cially those who are fond of hunting and outdoor sport, 
before he gets to be a man. Then again how^ swiftly it 
passes after he has crossed the summit of life's divide. 
It is now more than forty years since I killed my 
first deer; it was in the winter of 1855, in Doniphan coun- 
couny, Kan. Some Missouri hunters w^ere after a deer 
and ran it so close that it came to the river, which was 
blocked with ice. I was hauling logs when I heard the 
hounds coming toward the river, and ran and got my 
squirrel rifle, and ran down below town, and I saw the 
deer coming across on the ice! It came out near to where 
I was standing on a log. I bleated at it, and when it 
stopped I fired at its heart, as near as I could tell, and at 
the crack of the rifle it jumped very high and started 
to run. I reloaded the rifle as ciuickly as I covild, 
started after it, and in less than 50yds. found it dead. It 
was biit a few minutes before there must have been a. 
dozen men and boys there, but not one was so happy as 
I. Soon the men and dogs began to congregate on the 
opposite side of the Missouri, but the ice was not safe, 
and they were much disappointed at losing their game. 
Well, that poor little miserable deer was dragged up to 
our house, skinned and divided up among our neigh- 
bors. And yet it all seems to have been only a few days 
ago. There may be some people left who got a small 
piece of my first deer. 
As I have given the story of this first one, let me tell of 
the last. I was at Oro when Mr. Snyder said that if 1 
would stay all night he would go home with me and take 
a couple of days' hunt. We prepared plenty of wood, so 
we could get an early start in the morning, and when the 
clock struck 4 I turned out and started the fires in both 
stoves, and while I got breakfast he fed our horses, and 
just as day was breaking we left the house and started for 
Mount Bonaparte. When we reached the base we saw- 
quite a lot of fresh sign. Here we separated, Mr. S. 
going up the right fork of the mill creek, while I kept up 
the left. 
I had not gone far when I came across where two old 
bucks had been having a fight, and for several hundred 
yards they had cut up the snow completely, and I saw 
where one had been down a number of times. Here I 
tied my horse, as the tracks were so fresh I expected I 
could overtake the deer before they reached the thicket 
or lay down for the day. Soon Frank scented some. I 
kept "on and hunted very careful, yet saw nothing only 
fresh tracks. Finally Frank lost the scent we had been 
following, but I kept on in the direction I had come to 
the first big thicket, and not liking to wallow through 
hundreds of yards of brush as thick as wheat I kept up to 
the left a short distance, and soon crossed the track of a 
very big buck. From Frank's actions I knew it was 
very fresh. . It went down quartering to my right, but 
as I had often been through on that route I kept on up, 
and when I came out into the opening I started down to 
see if the buck had come out. I had gone but a few steps 
when I heard him break cover down to my right. Soon 
he came out of the thicket about 2Soyds. below me and 
was making for a small ridge near the bank of the creek. 
I knew he wovdd stop when he reached the top, if he did 
not stop sooner. He passed out of sight for a short dis- 
tance, and was trotting when he ascended the small rise 
and stopped and turned broadside. I had guessed at 
the distance, and adjusted my telescope for the top of 
the ridge; had sat down in the snow and was resting the 
rifle against a small black pine; so he had just fairly 
stopped when I had the telescope on him, and placing 
the perpendicular hair straight up his foreleg and the 
horizontal one along his back I pulled the trigger, but 
he never moved. I was certain I saw snow fall from ^ 
bush beyond and above him, so I threw in another car- 
tiidge and placed the horizontal hair straight with his 
belly. Again I fired, and at the crack of the rifle, he 
jumped forward, and I was certain from his movement 
he was hit. I went down-, and when I came to go over 
the ground I thought I had over-estimated the distance 
a little; I had put the sight for 700yds. 
On reaching the spot I found quite a lot of hair on 
both sides of his tracks. I followed him up for at least 
looyds.. and expected to find blood every step, but saw 
not a drop. Soon I came to where he had run against a 
small dead bush, and about 20ft. beyond he lay dead; but 
not a single drop of blood could I discover. On drawing 
him I found the bullet had made but two small holes, 
and had passed through only a little above the heart. It 
was the first metal-patched bullet I had ever killed a 
deer with. . Yet, oh, how different were my feelings! 
Instead of feeling proud, I 'felt remorseful to think I 
should have killed such a fine animal just to please a 
neighbor. Lew "Wilmot. 
In Colorado Mountains. 
This season I decided to take my outiiig in the Rocky 
Mountains of Colorado and "Wyoming, among old 
friends where I had lived from 1888 to 1894. In company 
with my father I left my home in Pennsylvania on Tues- 
day, Aug. 31, arriving at Laramie, Wyo., the following 
Friday. Next morning we started on our stage journey 
over the North Park stage line, the driver being an old 
friend and hunting companion of former years. 
We arrived that night at Pinkhamton, Col., after a 
fifty-mile drive. There we were met by m}'- old friend 
and neighbor "Elick" Hilton, whom I was rejoiced to 
see after an absence of three years. After resting there 
that night we proceeded next day to Elick's ranch, 
twenty-eight miles distant, situated in a picturesque spot 
in the Rockies along the Colorado and Wyoming line, 
where we were to spend our vacation. Being at an ele- 
vation of 8,200ft. and in a cool climate, the only produc- 
tion of the soil is hay; and that being harvested late, 
the ranchmen were not yet through haying. We turned 
in and helped Elick to finish haying. 
The morning after the haying was completed, Elick 
hitched a team to a light wagon and drove about three 
miles up into the mountains, where we found a park 
suitable for picketing our horses. Then we proceeded 
into the mountains, where I found myself on familiar 
grounds I had hunted over years ago. Only those who 
have experienced the gratification of traversing old hunt- 
ing grounds after years of absence know the pleasure T 
felt. During the day's tramp I had the satisfaction of 
seeing four fine black-tail deer, and got one shot, but 
missed. Some of the others of the party saw some, but 
when evening came we all met .at the wagon without any 
venison to take home. After that we spent some time 
taking in sights at different points of interest near the 
lanch, during which time Elick went to the station — 
Pitflvhamton — to meet a nephew of his. Will Coolidge, 
of Wisconsin, who was also out for an outing. He also 
had to make a trip to the store, which was thirty-five 
miles away to get provisions, etc., preparatory to going 
out camping. 
At last Elick got his trips made and work arranged, 
and Friday morning, Sept. 24, Elick, Will, father and 
myself made a start for camp with a lumber wagon 
loaded with tw^o weeks' provisions and camp outfit, hav- 
ing also two saddle horses with us. 
We had previously selected for our camp ground a 
small park up in the mountains about eight miles from 
the ranch, where there was choice feed for the horses, 
water such as is only found in small mountain streams, 
and abundance of wood, the mountains being heavily 
timbered all around us. We reached the camp ground 
about 4 o'clock, after driving over roads which to the 
average Eastern man would seem almost impassable with, 
a wagon. 
It being a place where there had never been a camp, 
we foitnd abundance of fresh deer signs, and while three 
of us went about making camp father took a shoii; stroll 
down the creek. In a little while we heard two shots, 
and directly he came in and said some one had shot not 
far from where he was, and he saw two deer running 
away. Presently an acquaintance came by camp, saying- 
he had killed a buck down where we heard the shoot- 
ing. He was camped about two miles from us. 
An hour before dark I took a stroll up the creek, and 
Will went in another direction. Half a mile above camp 
I saw a bunch of five deer feeding and moving about, 
but too far away for a shot. As they were moving away 
from me I crawled after them as fast as their big eyes 
would permit. Finding that they were getting away from 
me, and having only a little daylight left, I fired at one 
as I saw it walking through an opening, but missed. I 
went back to camp at dark a little out of conceit of my 
shooting. After it was quite dark we heard two shots 
in quick succession, and soon Will came in saying he 
had been w^atching a path and had seen a deer and shot 
at it twice. 
Next morning we w^ere up early, and just about the 
time we were ready to start out to hunt it commenced 
raining, and early in the forenoon we came into camp 
well soaked, without seeing any game. After dinner 
Elick started for home, leaving us one horse in case we 
might have venison to pack in. After getting fairly out 
on the road he let two of his horses loose, supposing they 
would go home; but they were met by a party coming 
into the woods, and the people, supposing they had 
gotten loose from some one, tried to catch them, and 
they being driven off the road, lost their way and didn't 
get hom on schedule time. 
The next day being Sunday, we let our guns rest. 
Monday morning dawned bright and cool, and was an 
ideal day for hunting. We each took a separate route. 
I was determined on going several miles westward to 
a place where I used to find plenty of elk, and had a 
faint hope of finding still a few left. At 8:15 in the morn- 
ing I was making my way through a heavily timbered 
and partially swampy place, Avhen I saw a deer running 
from me. On my going a few steps ahead to get a better 
view of it another one started to my left, making a circle 
around me. then turned and started down through the 
•woods past me at right angles with the way I was going. 
Sighting an opening ahead, I waited for it and fired as 
it jumped through, breaking both hind legs at the joint 
above the knee, something which I had never before 
done io all my hunting, and by no means a creditable 
