The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-01-15
SHARPER THAN A COON.

SHARPER THAN A COON.
The Dogs Used by the Early Set
tiers Of this Country.
CANNES Which Enjoyed a stil.Hunt b
Night-Trained Coon Hunters Nearly
Extinct,
Among those species of animals
which may be said to have become cx-
,inct is the coon dog of our fathers.
He was of no particular strain of blood,
but he united the keen scent of the deer
hound with the intelligence of the shop
herd dog, and the tcnacity of tho bull
dog with the stealth of the panther.
With less accomplishments than these,
writes Honcstlale, Pa, correspondent
TO The Ne'o York Times, he might have
been good on a fox or deer trail; the
lowing herd would probably have been
safe in his keeping; he might have been
able to hold his own in fight, or have
stood an excellent chance of succeeding
as Q sheep stealer-but he couldn't have
been coon-dog. For your coon is a
cute and tricky customer, and crammed
with patience. Moreover, he leaves be-
hind him the coolest, most sccntlcss
trail of all animals that run. He leads
you through tangled swanlps and deep,
stony hollows. He trosses and re-
crosses swift-running streams: He
frlsks along the tops of rough stone
walls us silent and swift as a shadow.
He stops within a dozen feet of some
convenient wall, clears the intervening
space ut bound, strikes the tree, and
glidcs up to the longest limb, runs to its
extremity, and leaps dozen feet beyond
it to the ground again, breaking his
trail abruptly on one side and begin
ming it as confusingly abrupt on the
other. He invcnts tactics for emergen-
cies, and brings to every consideration
OF his welfare and that of his family a
large and uniformly level head. He
plays his cards well, and the dog that
would beat him must needs hold both
bowers and the ace, with strong cards
to back them. These the coon dog of
our fathers always had.
There were, hs remember, twenty
five years ago, the still-hunting coon
dog and the coon dog that let you know
at every step that he was getting there.
There was mixed up with the methods
the still-hunter an element of greater
ertainty that you would get your coon,
than there was with the more melodious
system of the dog that mouthcd his pres
cncc in the shadowy chase; but the style
OF the latter put more tingle in your
blood and buoyed you up with swcctcr
expectancy. There was something
weird and uncanny in following the still
dog in all the windings and turnings of
tho gloomy woods at night. He crcpt
among tangled brush and deep ravines,
climbed about knobs, and worked his
serpcntine way down into deep hollows
turning, doubling, shifting, crossing
and rccrossing his track, like tho laby-
rinthian tracing Of II ships tapricious
coursc-silent as the night around him,
stcalthy MS twilight shadow. His very
silence brought him to the prize. As
the trail of the unsuspccting coon be-
came warmer, the noiseless pursuer
grew still more cautious, until, the game
in sight, he rushed upon it like an
avalanche, and the pcnt-up music of his
soul went forth in one fearful howl of
triumph, and the surprised and fright
med coon knew that his nights were
numbered.
But it was different with the dog that
gave tongue as he hunted. He made
music in tho night-not the silvcry treble
of the foxlound, floating down from the
hills on the frosty air, nnd drawn out in
sweet cadcnza by every willing echo, nor
yet the mellow bass of the dccrhound,
swelling over the ridges, clear and far
sounding as bugle note, but pleasant,
though staccato, song of his own, half
bark, half bay-a cheerful mingling of
melody with business.
The baying coon dog always has a
better nose than his noiscless brother,
and he needed to have. The coon never
knew when the silent dog was on his
track, and consequently did not bring
to his protection the many wilcs and
stratagems that he at once rcsorted to
when the cry of the other dog rang out
on the trail. 1t was then that he
mancuvered to throw false scents, and
the brook and the bramble, the hill and
the hollow, were all impressed in his
service in his race for life; and it was
then that the baying coon dog of our
fathers came out strong. Step by step
he unraveled the tangled and wcll-l,id-
idcn scent, constantly sounding his wild
challenge to the coon to do his best,
until the hunted animals 'rcpcrtory of
wilcs was exhausted, and, accepting the
Inevitable, he climed tree. When the
dog found he had brought the coon to
this his musical bay changed to loud,
quick bark, the signal to the hunter
following on behind that tho coon was
freed.
But with the war, coon-hunting went
out of fashion as pastimc, and the
race of trained coon dogs gradually be-
came extinct. There are coon dogs and
coon hunters yet, but they are not the
coon dogs of our fathers, and the hunt
ers are gengerally shiftlcss, hand-to-
mouth members of the community, who
are even ashamed to have it known that
they go a-cooning! Yet twenty-five
years ago the colonel aud the squire,
the dominic and the deacon were night.
ly houndcrs of this willy game, and We'd
each with the other in being known as
the best coon hunter in their respective
bailiwicks. Once in those rare DAYS
now preacher was settled over a back
woods district in Pike county. He was
not wise in the ways of the woods.
Early in his first autumn OH the charge