482 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tDEC. 20, 190:2. 
An Indian Scare. 
In the spring of 1867 our cavalry troop was sent 
on a scout from Camp Verde, Texas. We were to 
scout for a month in Edwards County, southw^est of 
Verde, hunt deer and Indians, and look at the country. 
We found plenty of deer, they and the wild cattle had 
this country all to themselves then. I never was able 
to find but one settler in the whole county, and he 
seemed to be here only because he w^ould not be al- 
lowed to live anywhere else. As this was in Texas, it 
will be remembered, he must have been a hard citizen. 
The deer covered the country everj'where, and they 
were far easier to approach than were the wild cattle; 
in fact, we could not get within shooting distance of 
wild cattle at all, while we were on horseback, had we 
wanted them, but we did not;' venison was good 
enough for us just then. 
We saw no Indians, but found plentjr of places where 
they had been less than a hundred j^ears ago, and I 
have no doubt that these Indians saw^ us more than 
once, but if th^y did, they sent no one to tell us of it. 
We had marched west all one day without finding a 
drop of water since leaving camp early that morning, 
and I had about made up my mind from the appear- 
ance of the country' ahe^d of us that we would either 
have to make a dry camp, or what was more likely, 
would have to counter march back to where we had 
come from and put in all night in doing it. when we 
came to a small lake or pond; it is called a w-ater hole 
here. In the wet season this pond would be quite a 
quarter of a mile across either way, but just now all 
the water in it was right in the middle of it, it being a 
hole ten yards across that was fed by a spring on the 
bottom, most likely; the water was very good, any- 
how. 
The part of this pond that was dry now had a heavy 
crop of grass, a kind of a reed, rather, I would call it 
sedge grass. It grew so thick here that we had to 
cut and break it down to make a path to the -water, 
then had to carry out water in camp kettles for our 
horses and mules. We camped on a hill nearly a 
quarter of a mile awaj' from the water on account of 
the grass, the grass in this low bottom being too 
coarse and rank and not fit for horses. 
Tlie men carried up water for supper and breakfast 
before dark, but the cook had on hand a job of 
cooking venison, and shortly after dark concluded that 
he must have more water, and sent a man who had 
only been with us a short time, after it. 
We had a number of these recruits with us, and the 
old hands had stuffed them Avith hair-raising stories 
of Indians, Nine out of every ten of these men who 
were giving the "rookies," as the reciaiits were called, 
this authentic information about hostile Indians, had 
never seen one themselves; we had only been on the 
frontier a few months then, and had not "met up" with 
many Indians j'et. I had met my first ones when a 
boy 12 j'ears ago, and had probably forgotten rnore 
about Indians then than these fellows were ever likely 
to know. But I listened to them stuffing the rookies 
and said nothing. I would get about all I needed of 
these recruits when sent to drill them. 
Most of these new men had got so much Indian m- 
formation now that they were able to see an Indian 
behind every bush after night; they were, most of 
them, from our large cities at the North, and this 
country out here after night was likely to frighten 
them. 
The man had been gone after that water half an hour, 
when I heard a sentry that was on post at the foot 
of the hill call out his "Who comes there?" then re- 
peat it; and in half a minute after doing so fire. A few 
moments after he had fired, this man, who had been 
sent after the water, came up the hill at what our offi- 
cers designate when drilling us mounters, as a "S-l-o-w 
gallop." They were in the habit of drawing out the 
slow still slower to convince us probably that they 
did not mean a fast gallop. 
This sentry, who had done the firing, happened 
also to be a recruit; it was lucky for the water carrier 
that he was; but an old hand would probably not have 
fired at all; he would have guessed who came there, the 
water carrier had. passed out at this post. 
I was acting quartermaster-sergeant here, our regu- 
lar quartermaster-sergeant being at the post sick. I 
saw this man come rushing in minus the camp kettle; 
he had dropped it on the \MS.y, he had not been a sol- 
dier long but knew that when making a forced march 
to the rear the less baggage you carry the faster you 
can get there. Even an Indian knows that, and when 
we got after them they would always leave a string of 
old saddles, packs and buffalo robes to help us keep 
their trail. 
'What is wrong now. Brown Second?" 
We had three mem.bers of the Brown family in the 
troop, and a man here never heard his first name ex- 
cept when the muster roll was called. There were 
Brown First, Second and Third. I had Browm Sec- 
ond before me now. He was from Philadelphia, and 
had never been ten miles from it before. 
"Indians! Corporal. Oh, that place is full of them! 
They almost got me." 
"Indians be Where did you leave that camp 
kettle?" 
He had left it down there at the water. 
"Do you suppose that we have so many camp kettles 
that we want to issue them to Indians? What did 
your Indians look like?" 
He had not stopped to see; he was just going to dip 
up the water when 'he heard the most awful noise all 
over the country; I would have been scared myself 
if I had been there, and so he ran and left the camp 
kettle there. 
"Why did you not stop and shoot a few Indians? 
Is not that what the Government pays us for? What 
do you suppose they gave you that pistol for?" 
He could not see any to shoot, 
Picking up my carbine I said: 
"I'll go Avjth you and shoot about all the Iii^ians \ye 
meet; we won't meet over a dozen down there." 
Had not he better get his carbine? 
"No; you get the wafer; I'll attend to the Indians." 
I knew that no Indians were likely to fool around 
that water hole while this troop was in sight of it up 
on this hill, and I thought I knew what had scared 
him. \ 
When we were within a mile of this water to-day I 
had seen an animal put out across the prairie as 
though he was going somewhere and was in a great 
hurry to get there. I should have liked to follow- him 
to see that he met with no mishap, but we were riding 
in column and I could not leave wititout permission; I 
would have been given it had I asked for it. 
This fellow travels under the name of the Mexican 
lion down here; he is sometimes only the catamount; 
it depends a great deal on where the man, who is nam- 
ing him comes from. I knew him as the wild cat. 
He is not half so dangerous as he thinks he is; I had 
a greyhound a few j'-ears after this that could kill him 
as fast as I could club him down out of a tree to 
where the dog could get him; he got me one out of 
the Concho River. 
We started now, and as I passed our sentry, I told 
him not to be so extremely ready to fire after this; 
the moon was up now, and he could see who came 
there if wt failed to tell him. I would answer him the 
moment he challenged though, the regulations told me 
to do so; and I was supposed to set an example; but 
a man half scared to death by "Indians" might not 
hear him. Brown did not. 
We kept on down to the water without seeing any 
Indians. There were no trees down here, and I did 
not expect to find that cat here. He might have been 
in here after water, and if he had scared Brown he 
had no doubt been as fully scared himself, and had 
left long ago. 
The camp kettle and tin cup lay here where Brown 
had left them; the Indians had not .got them. 
"You are lucky. Brown," I told him, "when you 
come to sign the next pay roll you won't find 'due to 
the United States one -camp kettle.' You barely 
escaped having to pay for this one. Those Indians 
must be long on camp kettles, they did not want 
yours. It is the first time I ever met Indians who did 
not want the earth." 
Brown took up his tin cup now to get the water, 
and the moment he struck the water with it we were 
saluted with a noise that cannot be better described 
than as being like the noise a boy makes by raking 
a stick quickly along a paling fence. The noise came 
out of the Avater. Brown got up and began to shake, 
but did not run aAvay this time, and the noise stopped 
as soon as he took the cup out of the Avater. 
Handing him my gun I took the cup and hit the 
Avater, and the racket began again. 
"Keep a good lookout for those Indians, BroAvn, 
and I'll fill your kettle for you." I kncAV now Avhat 
was making this noise. I filled the kettle Avhile the 
noise continued, then, A\rhen I quit, it stopped. 
"Now, do you knoAV what made that noise?" I 
asked. 
No, he did not. 
"Frogs, BroAvn, just plain erery.day frogs. That 
hole must be full of them. This water is still here and 
Avhen you touch it they knoAv it, and make that noise. 
We Avon't see any Indians to-night." 
We started noAV, carrying the camp kettle between us, 
and after going on a while Brown asks, "Will you do 
me a favor. Corporal?" 
"Yes, if I can. What is it?" 
"Please don't say anything about this up in camp." 
"I AA'on't. If the men ask you about it tell them 
that the cat Ave saAV to-day made that noise and that 
I could not get a shot at it down there, it w^as too 
dark." 
Had this story got out in the tfoop Brown would 
have been favored about tAventy times a day for a 
Aveek, or until the joke had been Avorn threadbare, 
with more or less accurate imitations of a frog croak- 
ing. Cabia Blanco. 
Erie, Pa. 
In the Shastas. 
Shasta Mountains, Cal., November, 1902.^ — Deer have 
been notably scarce in my domain. I had climbed the 
Sleep broAvn sides of the mountains to various altitudes, 
clambered through the cafions and ravines, cooned it over 
rock}' promontories, bushAvliacked in the dense thickets', 
and tobogganed ( ?) upon the glassj'- pine needles of the 
slopes until my hunting boots Avere Avrecked, my wearing 
apparel threadbare in its more conspicuous parts. 
The summer had been an unusually dry one (Avhich 
means much in the sierra of northern California), and 
the warm rocky slopes Avere sunbaked, hard, hansh and 
crumbling under foot. Moreover, the gophers, squirrels 
and other small miners seemed to haA'e been exception- 
ally industrious in making the broken surface of terra 
firnia rather iniirma. Under such conditions the science 
of deer stalking is additionally complex and laborious. 
The fcAv and scattered deer in the more accessible haunts, 
very high up the most broken ridges, Avere apparently 
content to keep themseh-es Avithin narroAV bounds, and the 
noisy nature of the dry leaves, undergroAVth and crum- 
bling ground made it nearly impossible to approach near 
enough to get a glimpse of them. 
The open season had nearly come to a close, Avithout 
a drop of rain, and in the last days of October the 
weather had not changed conditions so as to amend them 
to any appreciable extent. When the first rains began 
to fall the}' proved so Avarm and moderate they had no 
evident effect upon ^the movements of game. 
I made a dozen or more excursions Avith my amiable 
dog, Shep, and my meat gun, Avith the result of but a 
glimpse of two or three alloAvable deer. Shep considered 
larger game out of the question and dcA'Oted himself to 
small matters. We picked up a number of squirrels, two 
foxes and a large lynx, in our trips with the rifle, Avithout 
my getting a shot or Shep getting a ki-yi-yi-yow at a 
deer. Then we ignored the sublime and fell to sniping 
an occasional mountain quail from near thickets witli 
shotgun, 
Finally a heaA-y, soaking rain, lasting for over a week 
came, clearing the atmosphere by putting out forest fires, 
freshened vegetation, and particularly benefitting things 
by soaking and softening the soil and forest litter of the 
mountains. Then we made two or three other efforts 
1(1 find deer, with no satisfaction other than to find a bed 
or two, high up on the ridges, Avhich showed that the 
deer were not shifting, A kind of shrub-oak, Avhich is 
little more than a bush, groAving in the higher altitudes 
in this region, Avere Avell loaded Avith acorns, but the 
deer were not feeding upon them. Both my dog Shep 
and T had about concluded that most of the deer had 
been exterminated or had migrated to parts unfamiliar 
and remote. 
A Buck is Nominated. 
The long-continued rain Avas yet rattling upon the roof, 
dripping from the pines, firs, black-oaks, maples and 
dogwoods, and all the underbrush Avas bending under the 
Aveight of water held in the cups of the foliage. Bowlder 
Creek Avas a roaring torrent and the ravines tributary 
were humming low or loudly according to the area of the 
territory they drained. About ten o'clock the rain clouds 
l.iroke away somewhat, and instead of a constant doAvn- 
pour, the rain fell at intervals in heavy shoAvers. In this 
particular region the sky is notably friA'olous— Avhen it 
rains. It can clear and cloud, quit and resume, shine 
and shower more times within a few hours, or rain 
longer and steadier and bigger drops than it doth any- 
where from whence I have intelligence, either by private 
correspondence, leased Avire or associated press dis- 
patches. 
And so, about ten o'clock, Avhen the clouds scattered 
somcAvhat, in a sort of a bogus way, Shep and I Avent 
aiound a ridge to the north. We found the trees and 
bushes dripping Avith Avater, and Ave Avere both soon Avet 
about the legs. Then, at the time Avhen Ave were in the 
midst of some of the steepest and most difficult ground, 
and in the thickest brush, the Aveather resumed active 
precipitation, so we made tracks for the house, Avhere we 
arrived Avith as much moisture in our immediate posses- 
sion as Ave could have collected by special endeavor. 
- When Ave had safely reached shelter, the rain ceased 
abruptly, and the sky became jarringly blue and dis- 
tressingly serene. 
And, dripping profusejy, with an apologetic kind of an 
_ adA'ance, I approached the kitchen stove, drcAV up a chair, 
and proceeded to explain to my Avife that deer hunting 
is sometimes difficult and damp. It occurs to me at this 
juncture, that, in writing my adventures, I have not here- 
tofore advised you that I am married. This is, however, 
a fact — a fact so Avell known to me that I have, perhaps, 
presumed in thinking it a matter of general import and 
intelligence. It is another story. 
As I Avas saying, I was explaining, preparatory to ob- 
taining some dry clothes, when Shep barked outside and 
from the windoAV Jim could be seen coming in from the 
woods. He had his rifle, and I noted Avith some regret 
tliat he Avas not as wet as I was. SomehoAV he had 
found some sort of a shelter— probably in some holIoAV 
tree. 
"Well," said I, "have you been out in it, too ?" 
■'Yes," he said. 
"See anything?" 
"Saw a buck," said he, "up above the thimbleberry 
p;itch between the forks of Bowlder." After a pause he 
added: "Had a fair shot at him at fifty yards, and 
tracked him a couple of hundred yards. Lost him." 
"No use hunting Avith that gun," said I, "it was worn 
out twenty years ago. Couldn't hit your hat with it, and 
hold your hat yourself; it " 
"Well," said Jim, "he was a four or fiA'e pointer, 
standing under a tree eating acorns. Shot at his neck. 
If I had shot at his face I Avould have got him. He 
Avas fat. FolloAved him to a rocky point. He Avas gone, 
but I couldn't find his tracks out of there." 
"Ought to be able to track a big deer on a muddy hill. 
Ought to haA'e a dog. Might borroAv a gun that " 
"Ground too rocky," said Jim; "too much brush- 
steep hill. I can kill quail with this gun— killed one the 
other day, shot its head off. I hit the deer in the neck " 
"Well," I observed, "he ran away. Did you knock 
him down?" 
"No. He didn't fall. Ran off a hundred yards, seemed 
dizzy and stopped a moment behind a tree from me." 
"Run up hill, or down?" 
"Kept around the hill toward the creek. When he got 
to the rocky point he Avas out of sight and I lost track. 
He Avent up hill part of the way— kept a sort of a trail." 
"NcA'er touched him. He wouldn't got up hill. He 
Avouldn't folloAV any trail if he Avas hurt. Did you find 
any blood ?" 
_ "There was a little Avhere he was standing Avhen I shot. 
Couldn't find any more. Must have hit him in the neck 
too far back." 
"Do you Avant to go back with the dog?" 
"Well," said Jim, "I never got a deer y->t by going 
back. Don't think iShep would track him. If I had had 
Jack I Avould have got him." 
I thought it over a minute. We were both wet — ^we 
Avouldn't get much wetter, though it was evidently going 
to shower. It Avas one o'clock. It is at least two miles 
all up-hill and steep. Brush was very Avet. It had rained 
on the track hard and Avould rain more. Could Shep 
follow the scent ? Possibly we might get a shot at other 
deer — it Avas a good place for 'em. 
The latter consideration turned the scale, thereby pro- 
\'oking this story. 
"If you want to go back we will take Shep and try it. 
Think it any use?" 
'It's Avet," said Jim. "Never got a deer yet going back 
after it. We might get a shot at another." 
"All right. We Avill eat a lunch and go. No time to 
lose^ It's going to rain though." 
Whether she thought it useless or immaterial, my Avife 
offered no protest, and, after a hurried Junch, Jim and 
I set out; Shep was promptly on hand and he had t\n- 
dently summed the situation up to his OAvn satisfaction. 
He led off in advance, glancing back noAv and then to see 
that he was guessing our course properly. If he had 
been told in language clear to his comprehension just 
Avhere we were headed for he could not have taken a 
more direct course, or haA'c assumed a rnore confider^t 
