, 1885-04-30
AN APACHE HUNTER.
AN iHDIAN's sixTY-MiLE FooT-RAce
AFTER DEER
Following the Game Until 1t Is Exhausted
and Then Cutting Ib Throat- q
The Way the Feat Is
Acoompiished.

Accomplished.
New York Timesl
alt is we'll to prohibit tho bounding OF
deer in the game regions OF this or any other
state" said Lorin Wagner, who left Now
York twenty years ago 10 live in the far
west, and who Is on first visit east since
then; ~but II you had a pack OF Apache In
dians living in your deer woods the prohibit
ton on dogs running deer would DO of no use
unless the Indians were also prohibite I from
running them. A dozen Apache Indians
will run down more deer in one season than
a pack OF the most persistent hounds could
in five. When IL comes 10 a matter OF human
endurance think an Apache hunter can
give points 10 any Caucasian that breathes
To take a sixty-mile run through woods and
swamps and over hills and roekE altar a deer
is an ordinary everyday task for an Apache
hunter, and he always gets the deer.
@When he sights the deer, which he docs
long before a white hunter would b able
TO discover it, the willy savage steals upon it
with skill and stealth that it is seldom the
animal suspects his presence before he is
within easy gunshot II the deor's head Is
turned away from him he shuiiies his foot
on the ground or breaks a twig. At the
sound the deer, il it be lying down, springs
10 its feet and whirls about, facing tho di-
rection OF the noise. II it is feeding it also
turns quickly with it, face 10 the hunter.
The Indian is always DESTROYS Of killing this
deer at the first shot,. and that must be a
bullet in the center Of tho forehead. 1t
Is for this that he makes the noise
that causes the animal 10 turn
with his face toward him. When tbs deer
turns he fires at the forehead with such ac-
curacy that his aim is rarely A. fault. but
II, as sometimes happens, the deer is quicker
to discover the cause of its alarm than the
hunter is to fire, and turns for flight or II
the hunters gun misses fire as it frequently
will do, the serious business Of the aunt be-
gins. for the deer is of with the speed Of the
wind. An Apache hunter scorns to fire twice
at the same deer, but it is also in his code
that no deer must be permitted to escape
after it has been shot at and missed. II the
hunter Fails to check his game at the first
FIRE he must run it down aud be in at the
death. And in this he never fails, for when
an Apache starts ON the trail of a markell
deer he never leaves 1t, unless he sustains an
injury on the way that incapacitates him
until he tires it out, and returns with his
carcass TO his wigwam.
-As the deer starts away in its fright at
sight OF the hunter or the sound of his gun,
leaping thirty or forty feet ut every bound,
the Indian throws his gun ON the ground,
and with piercing yelli starts in pursuit.
The deer at first leaves the hunter far be-
~hind-putting forth its greatest efforts to
get far beyond his reach as soon as possible.
But no matter how fast the deer may reel Off
the miles between it and the pursner the
trail it leaves 81 as plain TO the hunter as II
it vera marked in chalk all the way. A
deer is most timid and suspicious OF animals,
and at the Same time possesses an amazing
amount of curiosity. After it has placed
distance between itself and the Immediate
danger from which it fed it stops and awaits
further developments. The Apache hunter
well knows his characteristic of the deer,
and be joys along at a five miles an hour gait,
never tagging, never stopping. At sight
or sound of the approaching hunter the deer
bounds of again to run a mile or two and
stop again. 1t Is these halts that are the
first fatal steps in the fleeing animals. The
halts are not long enough to give the deer
any beneficial result, but on the contrary
give time for its limb to stiffen. At each
new start the leaps grow shorter, and the
deer starts away reluctantly and with de-
creasing activity. The Ind ian jogsalong
on the trail maintaining n uniform rate of
speed. He can keep it up without stopping
for six hours If necessary. After two On
three hours running the deer begins to look
for water to quench its thirst. When this
stage Of the chase is reached the hunter
knows that the deer's doom IS scaled. After
the deer once drinks there is no hope for it,
1t fills its parched stomach with water, and
laden with the burden, its leaps grow still
shorter and are made laboriously. If before
drinking the deer made its halts at intervals
of two miles. after drinking they are made
every mile. The relentless Indian pursurer
never drinks while on the trail. His tongue
may hang white and swollen from his mouth,
he may be choked with dust, his stomach
may be burning with heat, but not u swal-
low Of water does he allow TO enter it. When
a deer drinks at a stream it swims to the
other side, and the Indian plunges into
the water at the anne spot and crosses. As
he dashes across he scoops up n handful Of
winter and carries it 10 his mouth, where he
holds II, rinsing 1t about for "A few seconds,
and then elects it II he Is Obliged to swim
he lets the water run in and out OF his mouth,
but carefully prevents adrop from entering
his stomach.
"An hour or 50 after the Indian has dis
covered that the deer has filled its stomach
with water he begins to examine the trail
more carefully as he runs, for he knows that
IL is then time to find signs Of the deeris ex-
haustion. A drop Of blood here and there
along the trail indicates TO the Indian that
the deer has fallen on its knees at those
spots; a bunch OF hair hanging TO a project
ing edge Of rock or sharp branch hanging
low across the trail proves that the deer's
strength has failed SO that it cannot turn
quickly out OF the way Of obstacles. When
these infallible signs Of the deer's approach
ing doom are found by the hunter he in
creases his speed for the first time. He soon
discovers the doer, and with a yell of
iendish triumph he bounds forward. The
cry startles the failing animal 10 a
momentary burst Of speed. After a leap or
two it stops. As II aroused t. the fact that
further efforts to escape were utterly futile,
its turns and faces its pursuer with all the
defiance its exhausted nature will permit
In rare instances deer have been known to
run until they fell dead in their tracks.
When one stops and turns upon the human
hound behind it the latter keeps on at the
top OF his speed. The deer would give him
a warm reception II it had the strength, but
in spite OF its strong will the hunter knows
1t is too near exhaustion to be able 10 harm
him, and he siezes it boldly. throws it 10 the
ground and cuts its throat. While the deer
Is alive, or without a seconds delay, the
Indian cuts from behind its foreshoulder a
large piece of meat, and, trotting to and fro
constantly, he sucks the warm blood from
the meat and now and then eats q small
portion of it.
After sucking the meat dry he throws
the carcass across his shoulder 4 it Is not too
heavy, and starts back to his wigwam. IL
the deer is too heavy he takes a portion Of
the meat and hides the rest He keeps con-
stantly moving, for no fears that If he
should stop to rest his limbs would become
stun and he could not return at once with
his prize. His wigwam may not be far
from the spot where the chase ended as the
trail Of n deer is always devious and circuit
Gus, and frequently ends within a short dis
lance OF the point from which IL started, but
II the deer is captured fifty miles from the
hunters home ho does not rest until
he casts the carcass, or a portion OF II
m the ground at his wigwam door.
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