The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-01-26
me Apache Penalty FOR Missing Game
ut the First Fire.

They prohibit hunting deer with
hounds, see, in the hunting regions of
the East" said Wagner Ketchum, of
Astoria, who has returned home after a
twenty years absence in the far West.
Il suppose that is because the persist
ence Of dogs in following the game to
the death tends to the more rapid de-
pleting of our woods. But suppose q
pack of Apache Indians should be
turned loose in any of your hunting
tieldst 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 deer as
readily as the hounds does, no matter
how keen its scent. On the trail, he
follows it as silently as q shadow, for
he knows that he will soon come in
sight of the game, either feeding or lying
at rest among the bushes. When be
sights the deer he steals to within safe
gunshot. If the deers head is turned
away from the hunter. the latter, first
taking aim, shuffies his foot on the
ground. If the deer is lying down it
springs to its feet at the sound, and
wheels around facing the direc-
ton from which the sound came.
Ii it is standing, it turns
around quickly. The Apache hunter
is always DESTROYS of killing deer by
shooting 1t as nearly in the center of the
forehead as he can. So, when the deer
turns towards him. he fires at that spot
His aim is rarely at fault, but sometimes
the deer 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 ex-
pected to do, and it is against their code
to fire the second time. The hunter,
failing to kill his game at the first at
tempt, must run it down, and it is very
rare that he fails in this chase, As the
deer starts away in its flight, learing
from twenty to thirty feet at time, the
Indian drops his gun, and with his hide
Gus wells, starts in pursuit. The deer at
FIRST leaves the hunter far behind, put
ping forth its greatest efforts to that end.
But its trail is as plain to the Indian as
a turnpike road is to a 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 new start it is sitter and less
active. The Indian never halts. There
are runners among the Apaches who
can run for twenty-four hours with
out 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 inevi-
table, and when the deer reaches that
stage OF the chase the Indian considers
the victory won. There is no hope for
the deer after it stops to drink, for it
lakes into its parched stomach all the
water it can. Having laden itself with
this weight of water the deer is unable
to take long leaps, and cannot extend
its runs between the halts more than
half the distance The Indians tongue
may hang swollen and white from his
mouth, and his mouth be as dry as dust,
and his stomach burning up with the
heat. but he never stops to drink. He
scoops handful of water from the
stream as he dashes across it, and car
rles it to his mouth where he holds it