The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-11
A REMARKABLE INCIDENT
Piece of Firewood Embedded in a
Deer's Back.
MONTANA HUNTERS FIND
Supposed That the Animal. When Young.
Impaied Itself Upon a Sharp
Prong. and THAI the Flesh
Grew Over It.

III ooeaOOA 81 an tAttithh mas
azine for hunters and sportsmen. pub
iished in Denver, r. c. Fisk Of Helena
has an article telling of a most re-
markable discovery which he made
during a deer hunt in the Big Black
foot. Mr.. Fisk's article runs:
II was in the Big Blackfoot country.
IT had been raining Inc drizzling for two
days. and as the season was late we
looked for snow soon. Sure enough, on
crawling out of our sleeping bags on
the second morning the ground was
covered with Its first ROBE of winter.
When a fellow has waited a couple Of
weeks for a good tracking snow and
wakes up some morning to find his
fondest hope realized he becomes pos
sessed OF such good spirits that he feels
like going out n pulling up a few
trees before breakfast; and he fills his
lungs with the raw air and blows IL out
again in huge puffs, like smoke: and he
doesn't kick because the elk steak
sticks to his plate. frozen. and his cof-
fee, propped up in a snow bank, soon
turns to ice water. But you have ex-
perienced all these things yourself-and
know how it feels
II saddled my hunting mare. Fanny,
and started back into the mountains,
some five miles, where. in a drain, shell
tered by a high ridge from the recent
storm. / expected to find some white
tail. / was riding up over some rolling.
partly open, 'parky country. when / saw
some holes in the snow. That was all
they were-holes-for the snow had
drifted over and partly filled them. and
they looked no more like deer rae
than they did like mous holes.
But that snow had come withir the
last few hours. and / knew a thing or
two about tracks. and | also know the
habits or the m that made them
Cor, rather. ] think | do. and was also
aware of the condition OF the weather
for the past few days and the lateness
OF the season. Taking everything into
consideration. as l sat for a moment or
two on my horse. l figured out that
there was quite a little bunch Of white
tail down there to the left. in one of
those points Of timber, taking a nap
unde the shelter Of the rolling ridge.
4 unsaddled, picketed the mare in a
sheltered nook and mad a couple of
circles TO see the direction the deer had
taken. / soon found that they had
gone, as i had supposed. into one Of
the points of timber. | walked to the
first of these, leaving the tracks. had
not gone 200 yards when / saw a doe.
standing broadside. about 125 yards
away. looking square at me. She had
evidently just got up from behind a big
log. which now hid about half her body
and her legs. i got down on one knee
and when l pulled she went out of
sight. But when the 1920 snapped
that was all IL was in the frosty air
four more deer bounded out of as many
round little bed and ran in all dlrec-
lions. / had killed the only one that
had seen me and the others could not
at first locate me. for the little gun
made no smoke to speak Of and hardly
any noise. But every now and then one
of them would jump in such a way that
j knew l was coming pretty close. I
finally managed to kill two of them and
wound another-which last. ! am sorry
to say, got away from me by travelling
down out of the snow line.
Then 7 went back and dressed the
two ] had killed. In one Of these. a
fine, fat S-year-old doe. there seemed to
be something the matter AZ the place
where the ~diaphram joins onto the ribs.
The liver, too, seemed TO be held i'm
place by some means I had never be-
fore noticed while dressing deer. But L
was so cold that I didn't stop to make
a ~post-mortem examination. and salts
fled myself, for the time being. with the
supposition that the doe had probably
had a couple of ribs broken. perhaps
by a shot. close up to her backbone.
and that they had grown together.
forming a ridge to which the dla-
phram and liver had attached them
selves.
"Then I tied the two deer on the
mare and started for camp. Twice |
had to cross the Big Blackfoot. and the
picture i made, perched on the mares
HEADQUARTERS. would perhaps have made
an interesting study for a man with a
camera.
II thought no more OF the does cur
fous internal arrangement till after
had returned home TO Helena. Then I
made a discovery as curious as il was
remarkable and wonderful. The ridge
/ had supposed was formed by broker
ribs I found to be a fir branch. over a
foot in length and over half an inch in
thickness. This lay on the right side of
the animal, at the forward end. about
four inches down from the backbone at
the rear. actually damned hard and
close up into the vertebrae themselves.
At III forward end. and for about two
inches back from the end. the branch
was covered and held in place against
the ribs by a bone-like cartilage. which
completely surrounded IL and was Joined
fast onto the ribs themselves The
other end, the point hat was in the
backbone, was also encased firmly in
this bone, like gristle.
The branch had entered between the
fourth and fifth ribs on the right side
just low enough to miss the right lung:
had passed upward and backward and
diagonally across the body: piercing
the diaphram about two inches below
and to the right of the backbone: had