Jan. 2, 1904.3 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
S 
We see whar he hed killed a number o' hedge hogs, 
an' eat 'em. Finally we come ter one o' them peaked 
hills beyond Ragged Mountain an' the trail led up this; 
one place he hed dim' a tree an' sprung off on ter a 
big rock above. 'Now,' I sez to Cullin, 'we'll foller 
around this mountain till we come back here again, 
an' ef we don't cross his tracks he'll be somewhar on 
ft. Ef he goes off we'll gain thet much on him.' So 
away we started, an' after walkin' quite a bit come 
right back to our tracks without seein' hide or hair of 
the panthy. 'He's on thar, sure,' I sed ter Will, an' 
then we went ter a big ledge ter get up. The ledge 
was pretty high, so I got on Cullins' shoulders an' 
hangin' on ter a bush scrambled on top. Whar I 
stood was a kind o' cut through the shelvin'_ rocks, an' 
here I see whar the panthy hed clawed dirt on the 
Snow, an' it was mighty fresh lookin'. 
" 'Hand up the dog,' I sez ter Will below, so he 
reached me the chain an' I yanked him up. Quick's 
I bed the dog I took the strap off'n his neck an' let 
him go, after bendin' a scrubby spruce down fer Will 
ter pull himself up with. 'You put right along,' I sez 
ter him, an' I'll foller as soon as I get these packs 
fixed.' He started off, an' you kin bet I warn't slow 
about gittin' after him, neither! Half way up the 
mountam all of a sudden I see the dog cuttin' across 
an open stretch o' ground with the panthy ahead o' 
him, an' thar was Will settin' in the snow with a 
busted snowshoe. I didn't stop ter listen ter what he 
was sayin' jist at thet minute, but away I went after 
'em, only carryin' my ax, fer, o' course. Will hed the 
gun. Down the mountain we went fer half a mile or 
more, until near the foot I heard the dog barkin', and 
thet meant the panthy hed treed. Jist before I reached 
'em the panthy jumped out o' the tree, an' on ter 
another ledge, so quick as a wink I took the dog 
round a little ways whar he struck the trail agin. All 
of a sudden away goes the panthy tearin' up past Will 
Cullins with the dog close on his heels, an' when he 
was goin' by " Here Jerry paused and gave a low 
chuckle before he continued, "Will's gun was lyin' 
on the snow whar his snowshoe hed give out, an' 
when the panthy went rushin' by he made a dive an' 
grabbed fer the gun, but it was too late, an' he'd gone 
out o' sight. 
Will bed, got his shoe fixed when I was pretty near 
up ter him, an' he got ahead o' me an' come up with 
.1 , Under Full Sail on the Upper Missouri. 
the panthy before I did. Here was the panthy, I don't 
mean Will, jist undertaking ter climb another tree, but 
thet dog he ran an' grabbed him by the hams, so Will 
told me afterward, tryin' ter pull him back. Ther 
heads was so close together fightin' an' snarlin' that 
he thought sure the dog would git killed, but jist as 
I was nearin' the scene o' action, he got a chance an' 
let igo fer the panthy's shoulders. The panthy he 
kinder settled back, an' the dog sailed into him fiercer 
than ever, when Will ran up an' put a bullet through 
his head, an' he was ourn fer sure. 
"It was now near three o'clock an' here we was ten 
miles up the river with the panthy, so we hitched a 
'whith' ter him an' snaked him down the mountain 
ter Hough's shanty, reachin' thar about eleven o'clock 
at night. We bed been goin' it ever since early morn- 
ing an' was pretty well tuckered out. Next day we 
skinned him, an' tried out the grease, four quarts as 
white as lard. An' now I'll tell ye a curious thing 
about panthys. Hedge hog quills never go inter them 
further'n the skin, fer when we skinned thet beast 
here they was layin' in between the hide an' flesh 
around his head an' neck. 
The followin' day we started fer horn, leavin' the 
carcase, an' about half way back we run on ter Jack 
Shepard an' Mr. D goin' panthy huntin' up Cold 
River. Mr. D- sez, 'What luck?' 'Oh,' I sez, "We 
got one after some trouble.'" 
" 'Whar did ye leave the meat?' they sez to me, an' 
I told 'em they'd find it up at Hough's shanty.' 'Well,' 
sez Jack Shepard, 'I suppose we'll have somethin' 
ter eat, anyway.' An' I guess they didn't feel very 
good over it, but I told Mr. D before we started 
on thet I seen another panthy's tracks besides the one 
we killed, wlTiich was straight, so ef they wanted ter 
go panthy huntin' a big one was waitin' fer them some 
whar up in the woods. 
"Well, we bed the panthy skin set up, an' it was ter 
Bennett's hotel on Raquette Lake, when the place 
burned down, so thet ended his career fer good." 
Jerry's breath had about expired when he finished his 
narrative, and he lapsed into silence as the Sage took 
the floor and related several interesting experiences 
of . past hunting :day.s in . connection with panthers 
whose shadows no longer fall in the North Woods. ■ 
The twilight had commenced to settle, and sharp 
spatters of rain splashed against the windows facing 
the gray, stormy lake, while a red glow shone out be- 
t-^-een the open dampers of the stove and sent a flicker- 
ing light across the floor. 
"Some time I'll tell ye some bar yarns," said Jerry, 
us the party broke up, "an' there's some o' them left 
around here, anyway, ef there ain't no panthies. Well, 
I suppose I must get along," he continued, butttoning 
up his coat with one hand and opening the door with 
An Antiquated Krave of the Upper Missouri. 
the other, adding, as he went out, with a twinkle in 
his shrewd eyes, "I will say thet I hev ter stick ter 
facts with this crowdj an' I've stuck thar with this; 
panthy story."_ ■ Camilla. 
The Upper Missouri'' of To-Day. 
{Concluded from fiage 504.) 
'Twas so cold on the boat the next morning that the 
two passengers went ashore when approaching sharp 
bends in the river and found pleasure, not only in the 
exercise, but also in the finding of horns, skulls, and, 
occasionally, almost complete skeletons of the buffalo. 
Strange to say, only one stone arrow point was picked ■ 
up. 
A hot stew of rabbit and duck was much appre- 
ciated on this cold day. . Tommy said afterward that he 
thought maybe the unusual excellence of it was due 
to the fact that Jim's well seasoned dish cloth had 
been lost in it for a sufficient length of time to have 
exercised a marked influence upon the brew. The 
Doctor captured a goose by the aid of his rifle, and 
all hands licked their chops in anticipation of a feast. 
No more than three of these fine birds were seen dur- 
ing the trip, and one of them was the tame "Charley," 
who narrowly escaped Joe's pot.. It is safe to predict 
that if "Charley" was allowed to continue the practice 
of sailing up and down the ; river, ' he has struck a snag 
ere this. Since the scyth^' of time was cutting wide 
swaths in the 30 days of vacation, early morning starts 
were necessary, and so, as soon a^j' there was sufficient 
daylight to mark the course of tie channel, the boats 
were pushed from shore. When the Doctor and Colo- 
Old Trading Post at Rocky Fork. 
nel crawled from their bunks, somewhat later, there 
was always an abundance of fresh air, and they drew 
the conclusion th^it the top of the morning had a cold 
and forbidding nature. 
Few voluntary stops could be indulged in, artd, there- 
fore, the scenes of buffalo runs, Indian wars and mas- 
sacres, the sites of forts, trading posts, etc., were passed 
by with deep regret, and, besides, hunting was get- 
ting a slim allowance of time. Just now, however, 
the Mother Hubbard condition of the cupboard com- 
manded attention, and, therefore, at 2 P. M., havii;)g ' 
had- good run 'of izo mil'e^,- anchors were cast. Be- ' 
fore disembarking four white-tail .deer appeared upon 
the sandy shore a half mile away. After watching their 
antics through glasses for a while, the nimrods saun- 
tered forth with murder aforethought. Eight deer, 
one a black tail, were seen before nightfall, and three 
of them were, by that time, strung iip near the camp- 
fire. Evidently these animals hereabouts visit the 
water much earlier in the day than was supposed, and 
our previous attempts at sighting them had been made, 
after they had returned to cover. Jim got perky, laid 
claim to vindication as to deer, and said, "If the journey 
were being made in canoes instead of a sailboat, you 
would come upon numbers of them daily." Here, as 
elsewhere, cattle bellow among the hills and threaten 
to destroy the hiding places of their seclusive neighs, 
bors. Ice was very much in evidence in the morning 
when the boats were set at liberty and allowed to float 
past many bottoms where grazing herds, modern wind-, 
mnls and barbed wire fences occupied what was un- 
claimed Government land three years previous. Never- 
theless, fresh deer tracks seemed plentiful on the sand 
oars, and small flocks of ducks were seen now and 
then. While making a cut-off afoot, a settler was 
visited who displayed an inherited pile of choice ant- 
lers of elks, white tail and black tail deer. He had also, 
found some very interesting petrifactions of fish with 
crystallized "insides." The day was credited with 20; 
miles, when camp was made near the mouth of the: 
Musselshell River, where a coyote was engaged in run-, 
ning the scales of his vocal organs and cleverly imitat-. 
ing a whole pack of his kind. ; 
The Doctor remarked in the morning that a deer 
had threatened to come aboard the boat during the 
night, and that he arose from his bunk for the purpose 
of receiving it with proper ceremony; but when his 
chattering teeth began to awaken echoes in the hills,, 
he positively decided that he didin't want the animal 
and didn't care a continental whether anybody else did 
or not. The Doctor is a selfish cuss. 
Many dead horses were seen in the river just below 
the ferry at Musselshell. The ferryman had refused 
a contract to transport a drover, and the result of 
swimming them had been disastrous. The river was 
no more than 50 yards in width here, and the loss 
must have been due to quicksand. 
This is the locality where the buffalo used to ford 
the river, back and forth, in such vast herds as to 
delay the occasional steamboat for days at a time. 
Some skulls in a good state of preservation still lay 
upon the banks. The bare, yellow hills of the Bad 
Glued to the Bottom. 
Lfinds now came into the landscape, reflecting the ■ 
warm midday sun through a veil of purple haze, and ; 
only palm trees were needed to depict a coiinterpart ■ 
of the Egyptian desert. A new sensation accompanied ■ 
this entire change of environment, but interest was no > 
less keen, for here surely the settlers and lowing herds 
would be out of their element. The sunset was a won- 
derful display of. soft colors which, unfortunately, the 
photographic apparatus would not reproduce. Stars: 
do not seem to "stud the heavens" in this rarefied 
air, but suspend in space, and their brilliancy and 
seeming proximity commands .attention. ; ^ 
Jim had repeatedly . sa!id, . "If ; you want a black-tail 
deer you need only walk back a few miles in the hills 
on the south side of the river," and now it was de- 
cided to give a day or so to hunting and put this as- . 
se'rtion to a test; therefore, on the following morning, 
the Doctor with Tommy, and the Colonel with Jimy ■ 
started in different directions for an all day exploration. ' 
Night and the latter two reached camp simultaneously. - 
Ihey had gone back from the river about three -miles • 
as the crow flies; but as many more in ttps and downs,- 
until they found themselves face to face with a black : 
stallion, which was acting . as sentinel and leader of a =; 
band of horses. He advanced in a. threatening man- 
ner, with a confident air, and th^^r. dodged the issue ' 
with alacrity. Then coming upoiv the fresh track of > 
a blacktail buck, they followed it up through the foot- ; 
hills, above the tops of the groups of evergreen trees, 
spirally ascending a high conical bluff, clinging to ' 
sage bushes and tufts of grass, until they saw where 
the quarry had joined a doe and fawn. Further on the 
tracks led to a little pool of water in the cleft of a 
rock, and this remnant of the recent rains was an 
explanation, sought by Jim, as. to why so few of this' 
species visited the river. Near this drinking place, 
which, by the way, was a godsend to the hunters, ■ 
whose supply of water was exhausted, they awaited 
without avail the return of the coveted buck. During 
the long walk home in the twilight, they lost their 
bearings, thus lengthening their journey, and reached ■ 
camp with shoes pierced by thorns of the prickly pear 
and their bones aching with weariness. 'Twas quite 
dark when the other pair arrived to, call forth excla- ■> 
mations of surprise and pleasure by laying before the 
fire a good specimen of mountain sheep—the most 
