The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-08
BUFFALO, JONES flUSK OK HUNT
Former Salt Laker Thwarted by SuperStOus Indians After
Seventeen Months Of Labor and Peril.

so little. 1t was late summer when
Jones got to the lower end of Great
Slave lake at Fort Resolution, which is
not really a fort, but a lot of log houses.
Here it was that he met John -Rea, a
trader who knew Indians and who had
a lion heart. He quietly said he would
go along. He never did say anything
much more than that. All through the
long Arctic winter, says Jones, this man
Rea never once spoke unless to answer
some question. He would not talk. The
awful silence of the great still land had
fallen on his soul. Human speech seem
ed to him a trivial thing. Yet there
was nothing he would not do.
Jones and Rea sailed over Great Slave
lake to Fort Defiance. They were now
nearly to the edge of the timber coun-
try and they resolved to winter here.
FOUND A GOOD INDIAN.
In the spring these two men con-
cluded to go on toward the country
where they expected find their game.
They got one Indian, a bright fellow
wro owned a fine dog train, to go with
them, being very careful all this time
not to say a word about the intention
of catching calves, they knew already
that to make this known would be 70
put them beyond the pale of native aid,
if not to actually endanger their lives.
The natives hated them cordially
enough before this, but feared the
brawny fist of Rea and the ready foot
of the man from Kansas. 1t was spring
when they started out with their double
dog train. Next spring as we under
stand it. 1t was February when they
started but the thermometer would go
from 40 to 80 degrees below zero. They
moved far up the north and east, and
made their last camp on what is known
as Artillery lake. Here they cached
what supplies they did not imperatively
need and set out for their long and
risky sledge journey.
This hardy little party left the last
forest behind them and set out with all
their frewood ON their sledges. There
could be no fire at night, except enough
to boil a kettle of tea. They dressed
in skins and furs. After leaving Ar
tillery lake they went to Clinton Golden
lake, being thus, it seems, still within
the lines of geography. They went.
down the river, and then struck out
boldly northeast, crossing the Great
Fish river and getting out into country
far beyond the records of geographers
and east and northeast of any known
white mans travel. They were now in
a desolate, wind-swept country, but
were heading always out and on. They
crossed what the Indians said was the
limit of the musk OK range, and then
swung down to the southeast. They
found a bunch of a dozen musk
oxen, which they killed. The heads and
skins, big and bulky as they were, they
took along with them.
NO CALVES FOUND.
But still no calves were found, not
even on the last leg of their course
southeast, which they thought was
AID IN
out The Indian said they must go
back to the wooded country or perish.
So they went back to their last camp
at the timber edge. Here they rested.
1t was now March, and their trip had
not yet been successful. They had
seen no calves at all. 1t was, there
fore, necessary to face again the icy
terrors of ice and snow and silence.
They told the Indian that they were
going back again.
why, oh, white man with the long
legs" asked the savage, why do you
wish again to freeze? Have you not
already killed more musk oxen than
any who ever hunted for them in this
Iand?''
He could not see why they should
wish again to take such risks. AT last
they told the Indian that they wanted
to go back and get some calves of the
''Nazulee! Nazuleel" screamed the
Indian. Very, very bad" Then, with
a few hurried words of farewell, he
packed his dog-sledge and pulled his
freight" for home, some hundreds of
miles back toward Great Slave lake.
Now were the two hunters indeed left
alone, and probably any two but they
would have called it enough, and would
have followed the Indian back TO the
cabins, where tea and beans could be
had. A grimmer proposition never con-
fronted any hunter in any land. They
were out of flour. They had been shoot
ing wolves, the great, white Arctic
wolves, which perpetually menaced
them as they travelled, until their am
munition was getting low.
INTO A NEW COUNTRY.
They did not intend to go over the
region where they had found no calves,
but must go into q new and unknown
one They were tired and worn out
with this hardest of all travel. Yet nei-
Their Jones nor the steadfast Rea.
showed any signs of weakening. This
thing was still undone, and they must
go on until it was finished. Thus alone,
they two, with only one dog train now,
carrying with them what wood they
would need and what covering they
must have, with only their rifles to
keep them alive and that in a country
where the great wolves were now fair
ly swarming-thus they set out.
This time they swung into a new
country, trying the Dubont river re-
gion. They had to make chart as
| they went along, and to keep contin-
uouS record of the bearings of the COM
pass, as on this depended their sole
chance of ever getting out alive. They
held on and on, never thinking about
how they were going to get back, but
troubling only to find their game. At
| last they did find it, and here Jones'
ability as a wild animal hunter was
shown. All through this long, hard
trip Jones had kept with him six shep-
herd dogs, which he had brought sim
ply as hunters. These dogs saw as soon
as the men the strange, wild band of
musk oxen looming up out of the icy
mist, and advancing toward them
across the plain. The musk OK does
not run, but fights it's enemy, the wolf
like a gentleman, face to the front.
These musk oxen came on to meet the
enemy, not turning until within a hun
bred yards. The coveted calves were
with them, five of them, and the time
had come. The shepherd dogs were
| loosed and in moment the circle of
musk oxen was formed, the calves in
side and the broad horns turned out
toward these new little wolves, for
which the shaggy beasts seemed to
have contempt.
KILLED TWO OLD ONES.
Now came a cruel necessity. One by
one the old animals were shot down
the COWS being crippled by shots
through the hind legs. The calves dared
not leave the others, but still kept be-
hind the fighting, crippled cows. Their
Jones, a skillful roper. came into cast
| ing distance, and one by one the calves
worth almost their weight in gold, were
roped and dragged out. They were GU
rious sawed-off, shaggy-looking little