The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-09-08
AN INDIAN DEER-HUNT..
METHODS USED BY THE APAcHEs IN
RUNNING DOWN THE GAME.


II is well to prohibit the bounding Of deer
In the game regions Of this or any other
state said Lorm Wagner, who left this
place twenty years ago to live In the west,
and who is on his first visit east since then
but If you had a pack Of Apache Indians
living in your deer woods the prohibition on
dogs running deer would be of no use unless
the Indians were also prohibited from run
ming 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 to a matter Of human
endurance / think an Apache hunter can
give points to any Caucasian that breathes
To take sixty mile run through woods and
swamps, and over hills and rocks after an
deer is an ordinary every day task for an
Apache hunter, and he always gets the deer.
In everyday life the genuine, Unframed
Apache scorns TO burden himself with any
unnecessary apparel, taking as a model in
this respect the original Adam before he in
dulged in that unfortunate bite Of an apple;
and when the Apache hunter sets out for
hunt he dispenses with even such light
articles OF raiment as he may have been in
duced TO wear. He needs no dog to find the
deer-trail for him, for his eye is as quick as
dogs scent He follows it as silently as a
shadow, for he knows that II will not be
long before he viii come in sight Of the
game, either feeding or lying down in the
bushes.
"When he sights the deer, which he does
long before white hunter would be able TO
discover it, the willy savage steals upon it
with such skill and stealth that it is seldom
the animal suspects his presence. If the
deer's head is turned away from him he
shufies his foot on the ground or breaks a
q a 4 ~ =
down, springs to its feet and whirls about,
facing the direction of the noise. II it is
feeding it also turns quickly with its face to
the hunter Tho Indians always desires TO
kill the deer at the first shot, and that must
be a bullet in the center of the forehead.
When the deer turns the Apache aims at
the forehead with great accuracy; but IT, as
sometimes happens, the deer is quicker TO
discover the cause of its alarm than the
hunter Is to shoot, and turns for flight OF if
the hunters gun misses fire, as it frequently
will, the serious business of the hunter be-
gins, for the deer is off with the speed of the
wind
q HE sooRNs TO FIRE TWICE
@An Apache hunter scorns to Ere twice at
the same dear, but it is also his code that no
deer must be permitted TO escape after it has
been shot at and missed. IL the hunter fails
TO check his game at the first fire he must
run il down and be in at the death. And in
this way he never fails, for when the Apache
starts on the trail Of marked deer he never
leaves 1t, unless he sustains an injury, on
the way that incapacitates him, until he
I'll es IT out and returns with its carcass to
his wigwam- AS the deer starts away in
IL its fright at the sight of the hunter or the :
FOUND Of his gun, leaping thirty or forty
MT ha
gun ON the ground, and with piercing yells
starts in pursuit The deer at first leaves
the hunter far behind, putting forth its
greatest efforts to get far beyord his reach.
But no matter how fast the deer may reel
off the miles between it and its pursuer the
trail it leaves Is as plain to the hunter as il
it were marked in chalk all the way.
"A deer is the 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 its
stops and await its further developments.
The Apache huuter well knows this charac-
teristic OF the deer, and he joys along at a
five nile-an-hour gait, never tagging, never
stopping. At a. sight or sound of the APP
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
They are not long enough to give the deer
any beneficial rest, but, on the contrary,
give time for his legs to stiffen At each
new start the leaps grow shorter and the
deer starts away reluctantly and with de-
creasing activity. The Indian joys along
on the trail maintaining uniform rate OF
speed. He can keep up without stopping
for six hours IL necessary. After two or
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 sealed After
the deer once drinks there is no hope for it.
1t fills its parched stomach with water, and,
laden with the burden, it's leaps grow still
shorter and are made laborionsly. If be-
fore drinking the deer made its halts at in
tervals Of two miles, after drinking they
are made every mile
SIGNS OF THE DEER's EXHAUSTION.
"The relentless Indian pursuer 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
DO burning up with heat, but not swallow
OF water does he take When a deer drinks
OF a stream he swims to the other side, and
the Indian plunges into the water at the
same spot and crosses As he dashes across
IL to his mouth, where he holds It, rinsing II
about for few seconds and then rejects it
II he is obliged TO swim he lets the water
run in and out of his mouth, but carefully
prevents a drop from entering his stomach.
An hour or SO after the Indian has discov-
cred that the deer has filled its stomach with
water he begins 70 examine the trail more
carefully as he runs, for he knows that it is
then time for him TO find signs Of the deer's
exhaustion. A drop Of blood here and
there along the trail indicates to the Indian
that the deer has fallen on its knees at those
spota, bunch OF hair hanging TO project
ing edge OF rock or sharp branch hanging
low across the trail proves that the deer's
strength has failed, so that it can not turn
quickly out OF the way of obstacles hen
those infallible signs OF the deer's approaching
doom are found by the hunter, he increases
hts speed for the first tiDe. He soon dis
covers the game, and with yell OF triumph
bounds forward.
"The cry started the fallen animal to a
moinentafy burst OF speed. After a leap
or two II stops As il aroused to the fact
that farther efforts to escape were utterly
futile, it turns and faces its pursuer with all
the defiance It's exhausted nature win per
NIT The hunter knows the animal is too
weak to harm him. and he SEXES II boldly,
ehroua IL In the Oround and cuta its throat