September, 1919 
FOREST AND STREAM 
461 
spi’ing when the snow is deep and upon 
being caught they kick viciously with 
both fore and hind feet; but when strik- 
ing with the fore feet the elk rears, 
and the blow can be avoided easily as 
the fore feet separate as the animal 
comes to the ground. One ranchman 
captured and kept nine elk in a corral 
for several weeks. A blizzard piled the 
snow up to the top of the fence thereby 
affording a convenient way for them to 
escape and they were not slow in walk- 
ing across the snow drift. 
Dick Rock was an unusually hard 
worker, a fast traveler, wonderfully 
adept at snow shoeing and ate but little 
meat. Vic Smith did most of the hunt- 
ing for the outfits that he and Rock 
would take into the mountains. Smith 
used a .38 caliber Winchester, Model ’73, 
and was one of the best and quickest 
shots that ever hunted in the west. He 
could hit an empty rifle shell thrown into 
the air and has been known to alight 
from his horse as grouse were rising 
from the ground and kill two with his 
rifle before they could get out of range. 
His favorite rifle was given to him by 
the Marquis de Mores, who was a well- 
known ranchman in Dakota. Medora 
was named for the wife of Mores. 
Both Dick Rock and Vic Smith were 
fine exponents of that hardy race of 
pioneers who pushed across the moun- 
tains a half century ago and delved in- 
to a region of game, the like of which 
will never be seen again on this con- 
tinent. 
Sportsmen of today love to picture 
what that land must have meant to the 
men who loved the wild creatures of the 
wilderness. What wonderful chances 
for observation they must have had and 
what a limitless field for the naturalist! 
Just to have lived in that unbounded 
range was indeed a glorious heritage. 
W ITH moose. Rock was not so suc- 
cessful. At different times, cov- 
ering a period of a few years, he 
caught about fifty-two moose, principally 
calves, but only succeeded in raising two 
or three. One of these he could drive to 
a sulky. Nearly all the moose he suc- 
ceeded in capturing died before he got 
them to his ranch. 
Rock was as successful in keeping bear 
and elk in captivity as with the buf- 
falo. But it is well known that both 
bear and elk will stand reasonable con- 
finement very well. 
Elk may be captured in the early 
An encampment of Shoshone Indians 
leaves her young lying in the grass while 
she goes off to feed, but returns occasion- 
ally to nurse it. By watching the doe 
antelope go to nurse her young the loca- 
tion of the young can often be found. 
Even then it was difficult to find them as 
the little ones lie close in the grass, with 
ears laid back, thus rendering them quite 
inconspicuous and hard to detect. When 
a day or so old they may be easily 
picked up, but if four or five days old 
they cannot be run down, even with a 
horse. When caught very young they 
remain about a ranch well contented, 
even to the extent of coming into the 
house and climbing onto the beds. 
A few years ago there were thousands 
of these beautiful animals on the plains, 
but civilization has crowded them from 
their natural homes into the mountains. 
There they cannot survive, as they are 
peculiarly adapted to level land, running 
with marvelous speed, but unable to jump 
as does the deer. Thus in the moun- 
tains they can make little progress where 
gulches, rocks and down timber are en- 
countered and they become an easy prey 
for hunters and predatory animals. 
The antelope were ruthlessly slaugh- 
tered during the eighties and early nine- 
ties. In one winter the Indians near 
Henry’s Lake killed over three thousand 
for their hides and the ranchmen for- 
merly killed them for dog feed, hog feed 
and coyote bait. 
near Dick Rock’s ranch at Henry’s Lake 
Antelope are fast disappearing from 
their former haunts in the west 
One of the buffalo owned by Rock would permit him to ride on his back. This 
picture was taken shortly before one of these buffalo trampled him to death. 
