The evening call. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1891-1893, 1893-07-08
NEVER DONE BEFORE.
How an Adventurous Western Man Cap
tured a Big Horn Sheep Alive.

| How an Adventurous Western Man Cap
tured Big Horn Sheep Alive.
'There are more lies told about the
Rocky Mountain big horn sheep than
about any other living thing, not ex-
cepting bears" said a Western man.
"But know true story about one.
It's the story of man VINO caught a
big horn alive. Any one vino knows
about the big horn sheep of the
Rockies knows that, generally speak
ing, it would be quite as easy TO grab
a streak of lightning, and hold it as
it would be to get his hands on one
of these wary, shy, and agile animals
But, as l said, this story is true and
its hero is man named Frank Baker
of Montana. Baker was out hunting
one day and came across a big horn.
His dog drove it up steep cliff to a
place where it seemed unable to pro-
coed further and there held it at bay.
Casting his eye over the strategic
points of the field, Baker made up his
mind that by bold but somewhat
risky movement he might te able to
do something that he had never heard
OF any man doing or attempting to do
before, and that was to make a
prisoner of the big horn. He took
his back track, while the dog kept
the sheep at bay, and getting to the
end Of the cliff climbed the bank and
reached the summit of the rocks He
went back along this until he was di-
rectly 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
astride the sleeps back AT the
same moment he threw his arms
around its neck, locked his fingers
together, and brought to bear on the |
horns windpipe all the pressure he |
was capable of. The instant Baker |
struck the sleeps back the big and |
astonished animal lost all interest in
the dog, and made two or three ire
mendous bounds along the crest of
the hill. Finding it could not throw
Oft 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
was whipped off of him as if
1t had been stripped off by knives,
and he was marked and pounded and
until he had barely 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 efforts to loosen !
from Bakers hold and bur '
len.
THE yells that Baker set I'D. and
Jhe noise the dog made in the excit- #
ng and unusual melee, were heard 6
by one Of Bakers men at the :
anch quarter of mile away The c
truggle between Baker and the sheep
lad taken them some distance away !
rom the hill, and they were in sight 4
Il the ranch. The hired man b
rabbed gun and hurried to the G
Gene. Baker was naked, bleeding !,
nd covered with dirt, but he called
o his man when he came within
caring to drop his gun and 90 back
nd get rope. He was determined d
0 bag that sheep alive or not at all. ic
he man hurried away to the ranch, re
nd by the time he got back with the ii
lriat Baker, sheep and dog were each a
bout in the last stages of exhaustion. y
he man lassoed the big horn. and IN
De captive was made sure. Other oil
clip arrived by this time, and Baker e.
as carried to the ranch more dead ~
IAN alive. The sheep was SO nearly ~
aged out that it had to be helped sh
ong, too, and was penned up at the
inch. 1t was week before Baker "
IT over the effects or his fight with
lie big horn. He had intended to
nd his prize east, but finding that {
e sheeppersistently refused TO either clo
t or drink, and was visibly dying in &C
captivity, he ordered the animal fro
t free. In less than a minute after ext
gaining its liberty it had disap- /
AIRED among the rocks far up the nu
Ountain." "