The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1884-12-13

The following interesting letter lie
written by Jack khorer to his broth
or, ]. ii. Rhorer, Jr., the handsome
and good natured Office deputy Of
Sheriff GoOde. We take the liberty
of publishing Jacks letter, and hope
he will tumble to the hint aud iu
clude the CHRONICLE among bis COR
respondents in the future:
VERNON, Texas. Dec. S, 1884.
Dear jim As / have not Received
u letter from you since l lett,
thought l would write. My writing
facilities are not the best. 30 you will
have to excuse bad writing We
stay ed at the house Of IN old gentle
man. who lives about two and halt
miles from the place at which W. are
erecting our mansion, until last We'd
nesday, when We moved to our ''dug-
out, and are now camping until We
can get /; finished, when We will go
to house keeping Since we lett tue
old gentleman's family has arrived
We were invited to call on Sunday,
but don't think we will go until We
get little better fixed up.
The land of this country is u roll
ing prairie, broken occasionally by u
me. quite thicket, a low sand bill, OF
a creek, along the banks of which
may be seen q few scrubby elms,
hackberries, cottonwoods. etc. There
are any number Of prairie dogs about
here. They live in holes. and may
be seen any time Of day feeding near
their houses. They are about the
size Of fox squirrel, but have short
tale; in color they vary from red to
light yellow. When you approach
them they run to their holes and
commence to bark. Their bark
sounds more like the chirplng of
bird than the barking Of a dog.
There are plenty of antelopes about.
but they are very wild. and you can
not often get nearer to them than
three Or four hundred yards Abou,
nine days ago, as We were going
home from work, when it was almost
dark, We came upon flock of them,
that had gone into q 40O-xcre 6eld
that is fenced on three eides with
two wires, but on the back side there
is only one wire, and under this they
bad gone. | bad my gun and Sam
had his repeating rite There was
with Us q man who is helping us
We commenced to shoot at them and
got them so scared that they did not
know how 10 get ont. but it was soon
SO dark that we could not see the
sights on our guns. and SO the shoot-
ing bad to be done by guess- Que
was killed by the rifle. and some
others we're wounded. / think my
gun had something to do with the
woundipg. Autelopes are about the
SIZE OF deer, and look like them, ex
cept they are somewhat lighter III
color. aud have tails like goats. The
females have NO horns. the males
small ones. The meat is a. good rs
venison, If not better. There are
plenty Ut small wolves or coyotes
about here. They are about the size
Of q common cur, but have much
longer hair. They have sharp. erect
ears. and their tails are somewhat
bushy and reach to their knees; H.
color they are reddish gray. A few
days ago / saw Eve together, bur
generally we see them one at time
| have not seen q mule-eared rabbi,
or prairie chicken since l reached
Vernon. To-day [ killed curlew
1t is about the size of teal duck,
nearly the color Of partridge. ba.
a bill about Eve inches long, aud has
long legs. Polecsts and hawks
abound. There are sune badgers
about, but l have not yet seen any of
them. There are Jew wild dnrks.
There are said to be pauibets. Wild
cats. deer and turkeys on Beaver
creek, about ten miles from here.
As it il bed time will close.
Your atfectionaie brother,