News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-01-17
RUNNING DOWN A DEER.
THE APACHE PENALTY FOR MISSING
THE GAME AT THE FIRST FIRE.
The Indian Hunters Method of Securing
his Game-IIis Tireless Efforts in the
Chase.


hounds, [ see, in the hunting regions of
the east, said Wagner Ketchum, of As
toria, N. Y, who has returned home
after twenty years absence in the far
West. 81 suppose that is because the
persistence of dogs in following the
game to the death tends to the more
rapid depicting of our woods. But sup
pose pack of Apache Indians should be
turned loose in any of your hunting
fields A dozen of them would hound
more deer to destruction in one month
than all the dogs in the State could in
five years.
"When an Apache hunter goes out for
hunt he dispenses with even the scant
attire he assumes in his ordinary daily
walk in life. He needs no dog, for his
quick eye detects the trail of a deer as
readily as the hounds does, no matter
how keen its scent On the trail, he fol-
lows it as silently as shadow, for he
knows that he will soon come in sight of
the game, either feeding or lying at rest
among the bushes. When he sights the
deer, he steals to within safe gunshOt.
If the deer's head is turned away from
the hunter, the latter. first taking aim,
shufies his foot on the ground. If the
deer is lying down it springs to its feet
at the sound and wheels around, facing
the direction from which the sound
came If it is standing, it turns around
quickly.
1.-The Apache hunter is always de-
sirous of killing deer by shooting it as
nearly in the centre of the forehead as
he can. So, when the deer turns to-
ward him, he fires at that spot. His aim
SC, hui ,a
is quicker to discover the cause of its
alarm than the hunter is to fire, and
turns for safety in flight An Apache's
gun, also, not infrequently misses fire,
and the deer fees on the wings of the
wind. To permit deer to escape after
it is once discovered is something that no
Apache hunter is expected to do, and it
is against their code to fire the second
time The hunter, failing to kill his
game at the first attempt, must run it
down, and it is very rare that he fails in
this chase. AS the deer starts away in
its flight, leaping from twenty to thirty
feet at time, the Indian drops his gun,
suit The deer at first leaves the hunter
far behind, putting forth its greatest
| efforts to that end. But its trail is as
plain to the Indian as turnpike road is
! to white man, and he follows it. AS is
its nature, as soon as the deer is out of
sight and sound of threatening danger,
it stops and waits for developments. The
sight of the pursuing hunter starts it on
its way again. Every halt of this kind
tells against the deer, for it is not of
sufficient length to give it any beneficial
rest, and at every start it IS SITTER and
| less active.
"The Indian never halts. There are
runners among the Apaches who can run
for twenty-four hours without a stop,
and can make their five miles every
hour of the time. After the deer has
run for two or three hours, its thirst
prompts it to make for the nearest
water This the relentless hunter knows
to- be inevitable, and when the deer
reaches that stage of the chase the In
| dian considers the victory won. There
is no hope for the deer after it stops to
drink, for it takes into its parched
stomach all it can. Having laden itself
! with this weight of water the deer is un-
able to take long leaps, and cannot ex-
| tend its run between halts more than
half the former distance. The Indians
tongue may hang swollen and white
rom his mouth, and his mouth be as
dry as dust. and his stomach burning
up with heat, but he never stops to drink.
He scoops handful of water from the
stream as he dashes across it, and carries
it to mis- mouth, where he holds it n mo-
ment and elects it without taking swal-
low. If he is obliged to swim, he let's
the water run in his mouth, but keeps
it from his stomach.
CATER running an hour or so, after
the deer has quenched its thirst, the In
dian knows it is time to find some evil
dence of the animals weakening.
These he is sure to find along the trail,
in the shape of blood spots on some
rock where the deer has tumbled on its
knees, or a patch of hair clinging to
some sharp projection, showing that the
deer's strength has failed so that it can
not turn quickly out of the way of OBJ
stacles. Now the Indian increases his
speed. He knows that the deers race
is run. In time he oyertakes the deer,
which is now Looping feelly along. A
! yell startles it into momentary burst
of speed. Then. as if approaching the
fact that it were useless to prolong the
race, it stops and turns with all the de-
fance its exhausted nature can assume,
/ dlI1l d"dIuo tIIo VI lhC
| Sometimes, however, the deer runs until
it drops dead or dying in its tracks. If
it turns upon the Indian, the latter keeps
right on at full speed. He knows the
deer can do him no harm. its inclination
to the contrary Notwithstanding.
"He seizes it boldly, throws it to the
ground with ease, and cuts its throat.
Without moments delay, whether the
deer is dead or dying, the Indian cuts
from behind the fore shoulder large
piece of meat. He sucks the warm
blood from it and devours the morsel,
keeping constantly ON the move. If the
carcass of the deer is not too heavy, he
throws it across his shoulders and starts
! Immediately for home. He does not
rest moment, for fear of becoming too
stiff to make the return trip. If the deer
is too heavy for him to carry, he cuts
out the choicest parts, hides the remain
der in a secure place, and brings in the
former. In this case another member of
the tribe is selected to take his back
| track on the arrival of the hunter in
camp, and bring in the venison left be-
| hind.
eff deer is young an Apache hunter
will run it down within distance of 60
miles, but they have been known to pro-
| long a chase for 100 miles. The course
taken is always devious and circuitous,
and may end within a mile or SO of the
starting place.