Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1892-04-12

tssqne frontier exaggerstion 10 expires
their ideas of this numefoua insect.
| One declared he found them - abpn.
dant between the Yukon and Hota-
| lingua rivers that he could make several
saber cuts through the dense swarm
with his bowie knife and holding II
aloft see the blood trickle from the
blade, while q tobacco-chewing COM
panion asserted that At one locality on
the Yukon he would have to thrust his
Winchester rife barrel into the mass
ard withdraw it quickly TO get place
to spit. Again the forenoon Of the gath
we heard . lynx scream in the woods
of heavily timbercd valley leading of
to the West and showing that these an
imals were fairly numerous in these
parts. Early in the afternoon of that
day as we were slowly drifting
down near the western bank,
the boats close together, . moose
was seen on the opposite bank brows-
ing on the low trailing deciduous bush
and apparently unaware of our pres
ence. The Winchester 4O-S2 rifle was
in Russelrs boat, and to him fell the
risk Of shot at the animal from the
turning boat, q good honest $50 to 300
yards away. The movements in the
boats attracted the attention of his
mooseship just a. low branching cot
tonwood tree was brought between US
by the boats drifting and the slow
walking of the animal itself. This pre-
vented fair. full shot at the very
moment when the best shot at large
game Is nearly always presented, or
just when an animal first notices his
enemy and remains rigidly fixed and
statuesque for few seconds. seemingly
uncertain what to do. The moose now
stepped partially out from cover to sat-
isfy its curiosity as to our identity and
the next second the rife cracked,
the animal plunging forward
- II struck, but after several
stumblings due either to the effect Of
the shot or the tangled drift wood
through which it plunged. it wheeled,
and before another effective shot could
be made. disappeared In the woods.
From our point Of view we could see
that the moose was on IN island, and
hoping that it had been hit hard
enough to make it reluctant to take to
the water beyond the island we got out
our oars tn > ti6y and rowed across ~
only excited Nimrods can when the
prize il big one; losing less in down
ward drift than the width Of the river,
despite the swift current. 1t fell to
Russell to finish his work, but with no
shot heard by us, we felt sure he had
failed when we saw him returning in
the distance. Upon rejoining us he
said he had seen the moose again ut a
great distance running, but Instead Of
pne there was q herd Of three, and
that none OF them appeared to be in
|ured In the least; all disappearing
IN = twinkle just ~ he fairly set his
eyes upon Thorn. But the most surpris-
!ng part of all TO everybody was the
TACT that there was dead two-year-old
moose bull, just recently killed. about
one hundred yards up the river from
where the boats had stopped and Rus
'ell had first landed. 1t had been
'ound by Russell, who, after seeing the
others safely out of sight. had returned
BY way OF the cottonwood tree to de-
;ermine II he could find any traces to
,erify that he had wounded the an NAL
hot at. and was utterly dumbfounded
md correspondingly elated 20 find that
le had whole mosse carcass to prove
t; the animal having been instantly |
titled by shot through the
leart. the very part at which he had
lined. There seemed to be only one |
Wy to explain it. When the first shot |
vas urea at the partially hidden moose |
was instantly killed, but just as it
lropped near comrade, that had not |
'een seen at all, rushed into sight and |
y dancing deliriously through the
riftwOod had led US to believe it was
wounded but after wheeling and join
ng the two others in the brush had |
scaped as narrated. Russelrs rife |
sd only stopped the moose but his
uriosity had secured us the meat which
therwise would have been passed by
nd we would have chronicled this
uniting incident as failure. This
,oose was the first large game Russell
ad ever killed, although good shot
nd living for quite while on the from
Ter prospecting and mining. We took
9th hams and the choice bits, not for
citing the greatest delicacy to the
russians who owned Alaska before us.
he nose, and sailed away again, regret