Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-05-26
DEER AND BUFFALO.
Ranch Life and Exciting Game-Shootinl
the Far West.


To see the rapidity with which
larger kind of game animals are be
exterminated throughout the Uni
States is really melancholy. Twenty-t
years ago, or even fifteen years ago,
Western plains and mountains we're
places fairly thronged with deer, elk, an
lope and buffalo. Indeed, there was tt
no other part of the world save Sol
Africa where the number of indiyidu
OF large game animals was SO lar
All this has now been changed, or els,
being changed at really remarka
rate of speed. The buffalo are aires
gone; few struggling individuals, q
perhaps here and there herd so sm
that it can hardly be called more tx
a squad, are all that remain. OverfC
fifths of their former range the 50
fate has befallen the elk, and their Mt
Der, even among the mountaint
haunts, which still afford them refu&
is greatly decreased. The shrinka
among deer and antelope has been re
lively nearly as serious. There are !
few places left now where it is profta
for a man to take to hunting as a D
fession; the brutal skin-hunters a
meat butchers of the woods and prair
have done their work, and these bu
skin-clad and greasy Nimrods are n
themselves sharing the fate of the ga
that has disappeared from before tn
rifles.
Still, however, there is plenty of SIP,
to be had by men who are of more
less adventurous turn of mind and
fciently hardy and resolute to be w
ing to stand rough work and scant ia
and, of course, excepting men who
out to spend some months in traveli
solely for purposes of sport, no class
as much chance to get it as is the CO
with the raHchmen whose herds n,
cover the great plains of the West,
even range well up on the foothills
the mighty central chain of the Roc
Mountains. All of my own hunt
has been done simply in the intervals
the numerous duties of ranch life; 6
in order to understand the way we
out on a trip after game it is necess,
also to understand a little about
nature of our homes and surroundin
Many of the ranches are mere m,
novels or log shanties, stuck down
any raw, treeless spot where there b.;
pen to be water or grass; but ma
others are really beautifully situat
and though very rude in constructit
are still large enough and solid enou
to yield ample comfort to the inmat
One such, now in my mind, which
placed in a bend of the Heart riv
could not possibly be surpassed as
CARDS the romantic beauty of its S
roundings. My own house stands ir
bottom of the Little Missouri nee
two miles in length, and perhaps
mile or over in width, from the br
of the current to the line of steep
Jagged buttes that rise sharply up
bound it on the side furthest from
river. Part of the bottom is open
cred only with rank grass and sprs
ing sage-brush, but there are patche
dense woodland, where the brittle
ton wood trees grow close together
stretch their heads high in the air. -
house itself made out of heWn logs,
large open glade many miles il
tent. 1t fronts on the river wit
length OF sixty feet, and along the
runs a grand veranda, where
in our rocking-chairs in. the sur
time when the days work is
Within it is divided into several r
one of these is where we spend the
ter evenings at the time when the
has set in with bitter intensity
known in any part of the United
A huge fireplace contains the gres
of cedar and cottonwood; skins
and deer cover the floor, while w
fox hang from the wall, antle
horns are thrust into the rafters
as pegs on which to hang coz
caps.
In the glade, beside the hous
are several other buildings
smithy and two or three sheds
houses, beside a high, circular
corral, with snubbing-post in
ter, and a fenced-in patch of
land. The river itself is usual
low, rapid stream that man
across, but that can not carry t
est boat, but when the SHOWS
after heavy rains, it is chang,
boiling, muddy torrent that ca
crossed by man or beast, and
bear huge RATS. 1t is at all til
gerous to cross on account of tt
sands, but after series of fres
whole river can be described a
four or five feet of turbulent W.
ming down over a moving mass
sand three feet in depth, that
entire bed of the stream. In
floods there will remain certa
and rapids that can be crossed
times any horse that dared to
passage, no matter where, wot
most certainly lost.
Back from the river for seve
extends a stretch of broken
tensely rugged country, KIN
plains parlance as 'sbad lands.
sists of chains of steep buttes
often spreading out into table-lf
separated by network of deer
and winding valleys, which br.
in every direction. When '
these bad lands we come to t
prairie, which stretches out
side in level or undulating ex
far as the eye can reach. In
the gorges in the bad lands
groves of wind-beaten pines, or
cedars, favorite haunts of the b,
door n RnnooaisIf a.a1 0aLfia1o