Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-10-19

surely come to drink. or he can take
the better plan of stalking his prey.
and. even though he be a tenderfoot.
can have some hope of success that he
can be proud of. To judge by the ant
iers to be found about every house
in the region s:X-prOng bucks are as
common as those of three in the Adir-
ondacks, while the possession of a
trophy with twice that number is not
beyond the range of probability.
If such a head as that is not large
enough for the ambitious sportsman
he can go over south of the plains to
4 range known as the Elk mountains.
The name comes from the elk. the prin-
cipal game of the. region. One must
climb high for them. because rItiI the
snow drives them TO the valleys. they
are found on the wooded mountain
tops. There are runaways plenty in
those mountains that are as well worn
as cattle trails leading to Il farm ward
One must stalk the elk to get him.
but the cowboys have found the sport
so fascinating that the number left
in the range is very small compared
with what it was six or eight wears
ago, when Il man with Il Winchester
would sometimes pump lead into three
or four without leaving his tracks.
A man was likely to jump a bunch
Of half a dozen from a clump of brush
and kill half of them before they cot
away.
Il was over there one day seven
years ago with a friend of mine named
Newt Dempsey sizing up the range"
said Dan Perry, a. cowboy, when
as we rode up a little valley full of
clumpS of trees, we started three from
Il grove. One of them was Il regular
old king-I had never seen such
spread of antlerS as hiS-and nv part
ner shouted to me to rope him. Well.
sir, the ponies We're fresh, and, wheth-
er you'll believe me or not we both
got alongside and dropped the ropes
over his horns. one on each side The
ponies stopped almost together, and
we looked to see that elk tilted over
on his back as pretty as ever you saw
but we didn't The elk
stopped the moment the laSsos settled
on him, and, turning quicker than a
pony could, he made q plunge toward
me that would have done for me sure
enough had not my partner spurred
his pony up just in time to keep the
beast off.
well, then he turned on my partner,
and it was my turn to get the rope
taut, but my pony stumbled in some
way and over he went and | landed
on my back. while the elk went tear
ing after Newt dragging my bronco
bodily over the sod. | was 4 little
sore from the fall, but I got on my
feet and had almost reached my sad
die again. where I intended to get the
Winchester and shoot the beast. when
the stock of the gun caught on a small
tree and was broken short off. and
the lever went with it.
Nevis pony was prancing about
half scared to death, because the elk
was screaming as we'll as tearing
around, and Newt was kept so busy
looking after the two of them he had
no time to get his own gun. and for
about ten minutes we had such Il time
as [ never saw or heard of on the
plains. At last, however, Newt got his
rifle from its scabbard and turned 1t
loose. 1t took six bullets to end the
fight even then. There's a lot of ex-
element in hunting ell1s in New MeXi-
CO. but if you want to know what
wild life really is you want TO get the
oil Won