The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-25
RANCH LIFE In THE WEST.
The Poetry of Sporting in Montana, as
Told by a Poet of the Chase.
Shooting Whitehall Deer-The Habits of
This Species of Game-Hunting on
Horseback and on Foot.


But few years ago any ranchman in the
wilder portions of the great Western plains
country was able to get large variety of game
without having to travel very far from the i'm
mediate neighborhood of his own ranch house
When my cattle first came to the Little Missouri
almost every kind of plains game was to be found
along the river but circumstances have widely
changed now. Antelope, mountain sheep and two
species of deer still to be found in greater or
less numbers scattered through the country over
which my cattle range. and occasionally not so
very far from the house, thus, last winter one of
my foremen shot mountain ram a ragged
buffer but half mile away; and have, my
self, killed antelope on the bottom directly across
the river, while, but year or two ago. the black
tail deer were more plentiful in my immediate
| neighborhood than were all the other kinds of
game put together; and even last fall more
than once shot them but mile or so from the
house. These are now, however, but exceptional
instances and if we have time to go off for but
two or three hours with the rife. we cannot
| reckon with any certainty upon the chance of
shot at any game excepting the white-tailed
deer. Of some forty odd deer killed last season
(for meat, not SPORT and not while on any regu-
lar wagon trip at least nine out of ten belonged
to this species. The white TAIL partly from it's
superior cunning. from kind of ehrewd, com
mon sense with which it is gifted to pre-emi-
nent degree, and partly from the nature Of its
hauntS, survives in locality long after all other of
the larger game animals have been driven out by
the hunters. 1t is pre- eminently the deer of the
river bottoms, dwelling among the Dense
swampy thcke.s. that form in the bends of the
streams and in the larger patches of woodlands
ia MAJ al in ifs hal fha
day in impenetraole depths and tangled recesses,
where it is practically entirely secure from the
approach of the hunter. Its chase is thus very
tedious as in the localities where it is found it is
almost impossible for man to walk at all, and,
even with the most paiustaking caution, he will
hardly be able to avoid making noise. The
white tail relies alike on ears, nose and eyes to
warn it of danger; and, indeed it is almost i'm
possible to successfully stil-hunt it while lying
or feeding in an extensive belt of woodland, and
usually the only way to get an animal living in
such locality is to catch it on the outskirts in
the very early morning or late evening Such a
meeting is more or less accidental.
At times, however, the deer will be found in
the smaller though still moderately extensive,
patches of brusnwood and dwarf trees that stud
the winding bottoms of the larger creeks for
miles up their courses, away from the river. In
these localities q man runs much better chance
of getting his game, both because he can fire.
quently Jump" it. getting a close, running shot;
and also because If ont still-hunting at eventide
or in early morning he is almost certain of having
chance to see the deer feeding along the edges
of the brush. / have hardly ever been success
full in single handed stilhunting and killing the
white tail among the timber OF the river bot
toms, and though l have tried often enough,
most of my shots have been taken when it
was so dark that it was impossible to fire
with any accuracy. When there is snow on the
ground, however, we can often kill them along
the river bottom. by dividing forces and sending
one or two to beat down through good
1oa a1f tu WI IA O. "a no q
places for the deer to pass.
AS is the case withsome other kinds of game a
man is not unapt to run across deer by
dent while riding about among the cattle or while
on one of the one hundred errands that keep
ranchman perpetually on horsebac Accordingly
it is very for me to go OFF for any distance
from the ranch-house without carrying the little
saddle gun with me. Once, early last Septem-
Der, when we had been out of meat for nearly a
week, owing to the stress of work having been
so severe AS not TO give any of US time from our
duties in which to go hunting. this custom of
mine procured US a welcome addition to our ex
ceedingly monotonous aud scanty bill of fare A
small band CT horses had strayed away from the
rest, and had ridden out with one of the cow
boys TO look for them. A ranchman's horses are,
as might be expected, perpetually astray and
one of the most necessary, and at the same time
one of the most irksome, parts of his business
is to look them up They may wander one or
more hundred miles if not found. and as to have
plenty of good horses is the condition precedent
for the successful carrying on of the cattle in
dustry, it may be readily imagined that plains
man takes peculiar care or his saddle band.
Often all the horses will keep we'll together, but
frequently they will show a tendency to split
into little groups whose individuals are never
found far from each other; aid at times there
will be some one horse that shows marked in
clination to wander off by himself. If one of
these individuals or little groups is absent when
the bunch is rounded up and driven into the
corral, which happens every day or two, some
man has to Immediately start out and look it up.
This seems at first good deal like looking for
a needle in a hays and indeed, at times it
does possess a most painful similarity to such
feat; but if q man knows the country as well as
the habits of the horse he is looking for his
work is greatly simplifed. Time and again
horses have been absent from my ranch for an
amount of time varying from week to six
months but with only two exceptions | have al
ways hitherto recovered them in the end. As
already said, it is particularly dreary and tire
some work to look after them, as one
has to ride along at slow jog, con-
tinually straining ones eyes in every
direction and infinitely examining every
patch OF broken ground or timber that coa!d
contain the missing animals. After ran it is
much easier. as then their tracks can bs followed
pretty readily, while on hard, -dfy ground they
leave no trace; an immense amount Of land has
to be covered each aav, and the probability is
that several days fruitess search will have to
be gone through before the animals are really
found, One gets gradually to have certain
hopeiess and irrtated feeling that makes this
kind of duty rank as one of the least attractive
of a ranchmans life
On the particular day il question: which was
the second one of our search. and my companion
were riding along about noon in the somewhat
sullen silence that comes to be ones natural mood
after long course Of monotonous exercise in
a land whose general aspect is the same it
is barren We travelled mostly along the higher
ridges whence we could survey the landscape
far and near, but finally we came to place
where a creek headed up. and where the ravines
twisted to and fro. their beds being filled with
underbrush and young trees, and where In con-
sequence, horses might easily remain hidden in
the thckers or in the clefts in the side of the
hill without our observing them from the die
lance. Accordingly we descended to hunt them
through more carefully; coming down into a
smooth open valley, through whose bottom ex-
fandad a drv fllad ,urith dnnaa