Daily Yellowstone journal., 1890-12-19
HUNTING THE COON.
How h Men secur the Fat and Juicy
Animal After Q Deal Of Work.

How The Men Secure the Fat and Juicy
Animal After . Deal Of Work.
On leaving the highway that leads
nearest TO the hunting ground the way
of the coon hunters takes them, in
darkness or feeble lantern light, over
rough and uncertain footing, till the
confeld's edge is reached and the dogs
cast of. Away go the hounds, their
course only indicated by the rustling
of the corn leaves as they range through
the field, until one old truth teller gives
tongue on the trail of Br'er Coon, who
perhaps has brought his whole family
out on a nocturnal picnic. The hounds
sweep straight away, in full cry, OH the
hot scent TO hill or swamp, where their
steadfast baying proclaims that the
game is freed.
Then follows a pell nell scramble
toward the musical uproar. Stones,
cradle knobs, logs, stuinps, mud holes,
brambles and all the inanimate n e
mics that lie in wait for man when he
hastens in the dark combine 10 trap,
bump, bruise. spriin, scratch and be.
mir the hurryin; hunters.
Then when al have gathered at the
center of attraction, where the excited
hounds are raring about the boil Of
some Great tr'e, the best and boldest
climber volun crs To go aloft into the
upper darkn,ss and shake the quarry
down or shoot him IL may be. II he
succeeds in accomplishing the difficult
task what a melee ensues when the
coon crashes through the branches to
the ground and becomes the erratic
center of the wild huddle of dogs and
men.
Fewer voices never broke the still
ness Of night with sounds more un
earthly than the medley of raging,
yelping and growing, cheering and vo-
ciferous orders given forth by dogs,
coon and hunters, while hillside and
woodland toss to and fro q more dis
cordant badinage of echo.
The coon is not a great beast, but a
tough and sharp toothed one, who car
ries beneath his gray coat and fat ribs
a stout heart and wonderful vitality,
and a tussle witha veteran of the tribe of
cornfeld robbers tests the pluck of dogs
and the GOODNESS of men.
II the coon takes refuge in a tree too
tall and limbiess for his pursuers to
climb there is nothing for them but to
keep watch and ward till daylight dis.
covers him crouched in his lofty perch.
A huge fire enlivens the long hours
of guard keeping. A foraging party
repairs to the nearest cornfield for
roasting ears, and the hunters shorten
the slow night tide with munching
scorched corn, sauced by jokes and
song and tales OF the coon hunts of by
gone years.
The waning throbs into view
above a serrated hill crest, then climbs
the sky while the shadows draw east
ward. then pales in the dawn, and
when it is a blotch of white cloud in
the zenith a sunrise gun welcomes day
and brings the coo tuInbling to earth;
or perhaps not a coon, but some va
grant house cat, is<he poor reward of
the long watch. Then the weary hunt
ers plod homeward to breakfast and
the mailing of their trophies to the barn
door.
When the sweet acorns dropping in
the frosty night tempt the coon to a
later feast there is a. good sport and
primer peltry, In any Of the nights
wherein this sport may be pursued the
man Of lazy mold and contenplative
mind loves best the hunt deemed un.
successful by the more ardent hunters,
when the hounds strike the trail Of
wandering fox and carry a tide of mu.
sic flooding and ebbing over valley
and hilltop, while the indolent hunter
reclines at ease, smoking his pipe and
listening, content to let more ambitious
hunters stumble ove lodges and wal
low through swamps in pursuit Of tho
elusive coon. Forest and Stream.