Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1889-01-05
ress Ind 9akotaiaa
WOLVES AND HORSES.
MORTAL COMBAT BETWEEN WILD
sTEEDs AND GRAY PROVIDERS.

MORTAL COMBAT BETWEEN WILD
sTEEDS AND GRAY PROVIDERS.
Experiences of Three Hunters In tho Pine
nut Mountain Range Of Nevada -
Thrilling Fight to the Dcath-Beautiful
Specimens of tho Equine Breed.
Zone of the queerest things about
Nevada, and one that has kept me won
dering." said Tom ID. Sellers, of Carson,
to an Examiner reporter at the Baldwin.
.are those wild horses. have lived in
Nevada twenty-six years. A good deal
of that time | have been in the Comstock
range, but when not there mining | have
been off in the hills of Douglas, Nye,
Churchill and Lander counties.
1T ID in these that many bands of
wild horses roam at their pleasure, both
winter and summer. LII winter the wild
horses usually seek shelter in the Pine
nut range of Douglas county.
This Pinenut range extends for sew
entysfiye ~ a hundred miles out toward
Utah, and is covered with a thick growth
of ~shrublike pines, which bear a nutritious
nut and which give ample shelter, while
affording the seclusion which the wild
bands seek. The Indians used to live on
this nut, and they do yet to some extent,
but in the valleys below the pines, and
growing at intervals among them, is a
very nutritious grass. 1t is on this that
the wild horses live.
LARGE MUSTANGS.
1.-THE real mountain wild horse is a
mustang of large size. His shoulders
are untitled for the collar, not being so
heavy as those of the American horse,
and he is a mountain climber, scarcely
excelled by the wild goat.
Every color, from bright bay to iron
gray, white and black, can be found.
For.steady running nothing Of the equine
breed can equal him. The racers which
run on our tracks would outrun him for
u couple OF miles, perhaps, but they have
not the staying qualities Of the wild
m
." am just in from the Pinenut range.
1 went over there hunting deer In com
pany with William McKendree and John
Thurston, Of Phoebe. We fell afoul of a
band OF about twenty wild horses that
dashed into our camp and liked to have
made us walk more than 100 miles. 1t
was about 10 O'clock, and we had lust
turned in.
ssOur camp fire was vet brightly
blazing, and l heard a roar off to the
northwest like the tread Of am advancing
army. We were on the northwest side
OF the range, and there was n steady in
cline right down to us for a couple Of
miles. gazed out into the dim light,
but could see nothing, as the fire into
which had previously been looking and
thinking blurred my eyes.
"Tho roar continued and I called to
Thurston and McKendree to get up, and
that something was going TO happen.
One said 1t was a storm brewing away
off in the hills and the other thought It
was an earthquake.
"All three OF us .peered forth into the
darkness. Our four horses grew uneasy
and dashed around and pulled at their
lariats.
IN a minute we saw the band emerge
from q stretch of pines and come on to-
ward US. They were running Mt a fear
fnl rate: their nessrils were. q ;:iiaattsai md
their long names and tails flying in the
wind. Their eyes flashed fire, and none
of us could understand the reason of
their flight, On they came, seemingly
seeking protection, and dashed right up
to us.
I'VE saw we were to be ground under
their heels unless we did something, and
we began to shout and hailoo for all we
were worth.
Our horses were meantime dashing
and charging. and it looked as Ii every
instant they would break away. We
grasped Our guns and fired over the
heads Of the horses, for they were 30
pretty that we didn't want to kill them.
FINALLY, just at the last second Of
time, when we thought we were to be
borne down. BY the wild throng, they
turned and dashed down the hill into the
darkness.
by this time We began to hear weird
howls and neighing and stamping.
Every once in n while we heard u.
whack, as though something was hitting
something else with terrific force, COM
hined with louder howls. The noise was
just behind tho p Il Of pinenut trees. a
quarter of a mile away. 1t continued
louder than aver, and two of us con-
cluded to push on out and see what the
rumpus was.
Judge of u surprise when we see
three old stations surrounded by a pack
OF big mountain wolvessand kicking and
Dltlng for all they We're worth. Three or
four of the wolves had been sent to
grass, their ribs broken and dise5led in
other ways.
A FIERCE COMBAT.
Around the stations were the able
bodied wolves, swapping and growing
and showing their long, white, vicious
teeth. Their eyes cleaned wickedly in
the darkness. The side of one of the
horses wa bitten and bleeding.
The horses stood almost head to head
and planted terrific blows on the heads
and bodies of the wolves.
Every ones in a while O wolf de-
scribed q parabola in the air. 1t was d
scene long to be remembered. Out there
in the keen, crisp night air of the noun
tains the three wild horses were fighting
not only for their lives, but for the lives
OF the younger and weaker members of
the band, who were being defended from
the wolves, who, hungry. had stolen in
eve fred on the wolves, and for a
minute there was as interesting a fusil-
lade as You could wish to see. We shot
right into the pack, to the right and left
OF the horses, and several of the big gray
wolves bit the dust. They did not give
up right off, though.
ssThey still eyed and snapped violently
at the horses, and even when we had
disrupted the band by our firing and the
horses turned to run away some of the
wolves followed them. A shot from
Thurston's gun, however, fixed the old
lead wolf, and another ball crippled the
next, n the wild horses fled far away
to join the band which they had SO valor-
ously defended.
IN p momen there was nothing but
the distant resounding of hoofs, as the
horses fled far down the edge of the little
stream in the distance. The wolves took
q back track to the trees far back on the