Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-10-30

moment. Slipping OIL his horses brl-
die, he released. q strap from its fasten-
ing, and sitting upon the ca1f's body
tied it's fcAt securely. There wns great
rejoicing over tho first capture, and the
wagon soon bundled it into camp.
The next morning it was decided to
try taking tho calves with lariats:
Some of the party were hcrders, and
very skillful in throwing the rope, and
catching half-wild cattle. As for Ike,
he was more used to the gymnasium
than the cattle rancho. He Ind never
! thrown rope in his life but he soon
| learned something Of tho theory, and
went out with the rest. That day Sow
cr"l calves were caught; but upon Ike
fell the hardest chase. It CHANGED that
he followed calf tIlAt had not been
drinking. In the rear Of the herd,
two old builalocs were observed to take
Il calf between them in such Il manner
thatthey forced it to keep pace with
them, their shoulders pushing it for
ward; but as often as Ike tried to ''cut
it out :" 10y itself, splendid bull, with
glossy, black tlanks-tlle Attonis of the
herd-Who acted as rear-guArd, chArg
] ed upon the lorsemcn with great cour-
age and spirit.
The plains abound with the holes of
prairie. dogs, and should careless
! horse chance to prance into one of them,
his rider would have dangerous fall,
particularly if an enrased buffalo were
pursuing. But Spicy had been reared
upon the plains, and, like all such
animals, and learned Co avoid both the
thorns OF the cactus and the dog holes.
He was looking for them all the time.
When the bull charged, lie fled. When
his pursuer turned to rejoin the herd,
Spicy turned also, and followed of his
own accord. Seven times the old bison
drove til. intruder away, and then Ike
shot him, grieve to say. He lost his
life in protecting those unable to
protect themselves.
The pursuit now became more vigor-
Gus. The calf, though soon cut ont,
showed no signs Of giving up. He
dashed to the right and to the left. He
tnrned, and ran behind the horse. He
doubled upon his track. Twice he ran
under the horse, but always avoided
the moose that was thrown with unskil-
full hands. Reaching narrow ravine,
he crossed and recrossed so often that
the heavy horse stood no chance, and
Ike dismounted. Sam Craftree now
appeared upon the edge of the ravine,
swinging his lariat in circles about his
head, then cast it swiftly from him. It
was almost a matter of course that the
moose closed about the calf's short
horns but unfortunately, Sam lost
hold of the end of the larlat. The calf
was now allowed to stop, and it began
to drink the shallow water in the revine.
While drinking, Ike crept up and got
hold OF the lariat. Finding its enemy
approaching hand over hand, it charged
desperately; but tremendous jerk
from Ike prevented harm to himself,
and the calf was "downed" as the first
had been. In all, the hunters took
eleven calves. Ike caught six of these,
and tied five of them unaided.
Next spring, Ike and his friends in
tend to capture and send whole load
Of buffalo calves East. At that season,
when the calves are very young, tho
hunter has only to cut the calf off from
the herd and head it off until its mother
is out OF sight, then turn and gallop to
camp, and the little thing will follow
him, or anything else, as fast as it's legs
will carry it.
A few days ago we all rode over to
see how the calves got along. We
found that one had died, but the rest
were quietly eating corn-stalks in a
yard, among: horses and COWS, pigs, and
hens. They were not wilder than the
other animals. A little five.ycar. old
was telling us about them, when Nellie
said, "What will they be good fors"
"Good for2" he repeated, "why !!
there's heaps of folks, East, jest efying
for them =