The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-18
AsTRIpE A BIG HORN.
Col. Parker Tells How a Montana
Ranchman Caught One Alive.
From the New York sun.

| Rocky Mountain big horn sheep than
about any other living thing, not except
ing bears" said Col Noah Parker of
Parker's Springs, Pa. But I know a
| true story about one. It's the story of a
man who caught a big horn alive. Any
one who knows about the big horn sheep
of the Rockies knows that, generally
speaSing, it would be quite as easy TO grab
streak of lightning and hold ii as il would
be TO get his hands on one OF these
wary, shy and agile animals In the first
place, 10 get within even long rife range
Of big horn, unless by accident, is some
thing that the most expert mountain
hunters are able to do only by the greatest
strategy, the seVerest toll and no little
risk, to such almost inaccessible fast
nesses does the sharp-eyed. keen-scented,
sure-fOOted big horn retire with ease at
the first indication Of danger.
The Rocky mountain big horn is in
stinctively suspicious, cautious beyond
Of marvellous powers Of speed and skill in
making its way over places that are mac
cessible to the most uimble-fOOted of any
other American animal. This sheep is
the chamOis OF America. ] followed one
once for two weeks, day after day, with
out missing one, sleeping on the trail, I'M
til pursued it almost to the clouds on
bliC 0Ltob u lllt EDlcIIdo DtlOEG HILL
aged to get within rife reach Of it. 1t
stood almost defantly on rocky shelf,
overlooking a canyon, but thirty feet or
more away from the edge of the chasm.
The shot was a long one,
but 1 felt that ] could put a
rife ball under the big horns shoulder
easy enough, and l did. But the deter
mined beast beat me after all. The
proper thing for it to have done would
larv hoo 70 IL To- IL
or bound away until ii dropped dead
somewhere else, to which spot l could
trace it by its bloody trail. But this big
horn did nothing OF the kind. With one
mighty leap, when the rife cracked, the
buck cleared the space between il and
the edge of the canyon, and hurled itself
into the tremendous depths. To lose
such prize as that after struggle for two
weeks to win it was heart-breaking.
"Now, if it is so difficult to get even a
long rifle shot at big horn, what do you
think the capture of one in a struggle at
close quarters must be? And that's what
Frank Baker did one out near Boulder,
Mont. That wasn't so many years ago,
and big-hOrn sheep were numerous there
then. III bet there isn't one within q
thousand miles Of there to-day.
Frank Baker used to live here in Penn
sylvania, but he went out to Montana and
DtthA tNAA ~ NNulAC cllAAl- Ii IDIh0L udl uGtll
out hunting for big horn the day he came
upon this one the chances areuthat he
would never have seen it; but he was not
out hunting and came suddenly upon ii at
the foot Of a slOping bank which was
crowned by an almost perpendicular cliff
twenty feet high. Baker was accom-
panied by one of his herd dogs, which had
also been trained as a hunter. The sheep
started up the slOping bank, followed by
he fY.l, ola ts.eF tic
up the mountain side and when the big
horn reached the foot of the cliff it took
in the situation at once and turned
on the dog. Standing with its rump
against the cliff the great sheep presented
a formidable front to the dog which was
wise enough to keep out of reach of the
tremendous battering-ram the sheep
welded, one blow from which would have
smashed the skull of buffalo bull The
dog kept the animal at bay by safe and
noisy maneuyers Casting his eye over
the strategic points Of tho field, Baker
made up his mind that by u bold but
somewhat risky movement he might be>
able to do something that he had never
heard of any man doing or attempting to
do before, and that was to make prisoner
of the big morn. He took his back track,
while the dog kept the sheep at bay, and
getting TO the end of the cliff climbed the
bdllh anu EedCneu Jle summit OF UIle rocks.
he went back along this until he was
directly above the big horn, which was
still on the defensive against the dog.
without stopping to calculate what
the probable result of his plan might be,
Baker jumped from the top of the ledge
and came down squarely aStTide the
sleeps back. At the same moment he
threw his arm around its neck, locked his
fingers together and brought to bear on
ba 4
he was capable of. The instant Baker
struck the Sleeps back the big and as
tonished animal lost all interest in the
dog and made two or three tremendous
bounds along the crest of the hill. Find
ing it could not throw off its surprising
burden, the big horn threw itself to the
ground and rolled over and over down the
bank. In that brief but rapid Journey
Bakers clothing was whipped off of him
as if it had been stripped off by knives,
and he was marked and pounded and
squeezed until he had barely q bit OF
breath or an inch of sound skin. But he
held on to the big horn like grim death
The dog had taken an active part in the
struggle, but the sheep paid no attention
to him, putting all of his energy into eff
forts to loosen himself from Bakers hold
and burden.
The yells that Baker set up and the
noise the dog made in the exciting and
unusual melee were heard by one of
Bakers men at the ranch quarter of d
mile away. The struggle between Baker
and the sheep had taken them some dis
lance away from the hill, and they were
IN sight Of the ranch The hired man
grabbed gun and hurried to the scene
Baker was naked, bleeding and covered
with dirt, but he called to his man when
he came within hearing to drop his gun
and so back and get a rope. He was de-
teTmined to bag that sheep alive or not
at all. The man hurried away to the
ranch, and by the time he got back with
the lariat Baker, sheep, and dog were
each about in the last stages of exhaus-
ton The man lassoed the big horn and
the captive was made sure Other help
arrived by this time and Baker was car
ried to the ranch more dead than alive
The sheep was so nearly played out that
it had to be helped along, too and was
penned up at the ranch. Ii was week
before Baker got over the effects of his
fight with the big horn. Hehad intended
to send his prize east, but finding that
the sheep persistently refused to either
eat or drink, and was visibly dying in its
captivity, he ordered the animal set free.
In less than minute after regainiug its
liberty it had disappeared among the
rocks far up the mountain
Hoods Cures.
In saying that Hoods Sarsaparilla cures,