The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-07-11
y-1rAe:.--
@qH's ENCOUNTER.

Mountains, and stretching off across the
valley of the Caney river to the Unaka
range. there lies a wilderness well-nigh
as wild and unbroken as when the Car
olinas were first settled.
Southwark the railroads have crossed
the Blue Ridge and pierced the heart of
the great mountains; and farther north
the smiling valleys of the Watanga long
age invited in the X and the plough
share.
But the vast forest of the Caney
River valley, hemmed in by mountain
wells, have remained virgin and untrod-
den, save by hunters from that half
wild, "c2acker"population, which scorns
agriculture SO long as it can subsist oft
the chase.
Those still wider denizens of the back
country, the bear, the wolf and the
deer, have retired to these dense forests
as q refuge from civilization. The
bushy Businesses OF the Black Noun
tains abound with the fcrmer animals;
wolves still issue forth from them in
small packs to prey on the out lying
tocks of sheep, and the plaintive, long
drawn cry OF the panther is not an un-
usual sound at night.
The mountain sides are covered with
a sombre growth of baisam and hem
lock, and in many places upon their
tanks dense jungles Of laurel present
impossible barriers fer miles. So tan
gled and interviewer is this under
growth, that it is impossible for man
or beasts to force a passage through it.
Yet the bears, 10y trampling the
young laurels in their paths and break
ing off.the larger branches as they grow,
keep open burrows or tunnels, under
the Jungle, which frequently meander
for many miles along the range.
In one of these laurel "Sunnels" last
Christmas morning, an old hunter
known as big Tom Wilson had an en-
counter with a panther, and narrowly
escaped with his life.
Big Tom has been all his life a
hunter, and there is not q bear path for
miles around with which he is not IA
miliar, or q laurel thicket which does
not contain some of his skillfully hid
den traps.
Our party of topographers, of the
Government survey had reached Toms
cabin on the banks of Caney river a few
days before. 1t was our purpose to as
cend Mt. Mitchell on the following day
to make observations upon the height
of the surrounding hills. The clouds
which hang continually about that
peak in autumn had rendered
this winter trip necessary.
Upon our arrival we found Big Ton
but just returned from the top of the
mountain. The night before som
"varmint" had stolen the Christmas pig
which he had butohered and hung ur
before his door to freeze. One neigh,
Dor thought it was,a wolf, and another
insisted that nothing smaller than g
bear could have dragged off so large .
hog.
"There amt nary q bar acome nigl
my do that I'm s1Tre on. More'n tibet
" ~ l. ~ boi pSttaS " III SlipN Ill :
bar don't walk on & fallen log. nuther
/ done been up the mount'in IN seed thu
critters track liz the snow, an' Ilow II
how it is a painter, an the bigges
painter as have been seed in Ties,
mountins come five year in May. An
ter think the beast walked right up &
my do an stole my hog, an / not know
it! I'll com up with that varmint ef i
takes ten year. They must low rs ISi!
Tom is gittin' ole, but they had bette
mot shet both eyes on him at once"
Tom had been on the animals tract
all day, and followed it through th
forest to where the thief had feaste,
upon his Christmas pig, then on up tn
mountain side till the trail disappeare'
in a laurel thicket near the summit @
Mitchell's High Peak. There, a shor
way under one of lShe dark pathways
Tom had set a strong steel trap, baite
with the remnant of the beasts Christ
mas dinner. The"old man was yer
wroth. That any wild animal shout
have stolen meat from his door was t
him the most presumptuous thing in
aaginable.
He proposed to visit his trap the mex
morning, and we were glad to avail our
selves of his services as guide; for with
out a guide it would be impossible t
thread our way through the mazes of tb
laurel growth.
The next day, rs SIC had feared,
'H'snow cap rested upon the peak whe
we reached the summit and althoug
the wind blew a hurricane, the cloud
did not clear away during the entir
day. But Tom had GENE prepared fG