The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-07-03

going to new hunting ground!
 Some of the most expert Indian scouts
 have even been astute enough to distin-
 guish from the character of the smoke that descends from a camp fire ten and more miles distant whether the campers
 were whites or Indians. General Miles
 used to have a Pima scout in the cam paign of 1880 against Geronimo and Co., chise who could pretty accurately tell : from gazing at the smoke through a
 glass whether the fire in a distant camp
 had been kindled for long or a short time. The same scout once led a de-
 tachment of soldiers across the twenty
 mile desert valley at what is now the
 settlement of Dos Cabezos, in South
 eastern Arizona, and thence into the
 Dragoon Mountains where he found a
 week-old trail of dozen fugitive Apa-
 ches among the granite, yet the troop
 CTS saw not the least indication that any
 human being had been that way in
 years.
 For five days the Pima scout scented
 the trail like hound. He led the sol
 diers through ravines, among thorny
 cacti and chaparral amid miles of
 powders, over sun-baked hills and
 along the foot of bald mountains. All
 this time he seldom spoke. He kept his
 eyes constantly busy, and occasionally he motioned to his followers as If to point out that he was following the
 right trail. At last one noon he sud-
 denly stopped his horse, motioned to
 his followers to get their weapons ready
 and to dismount. Then the Indian nvo 1n1 fn, io1f ie. l hands and knees over the hard brown | earth, scrutinizing the soil for foot
 prints. He went back to Lieutenant
 Cowles in command of the detachment,
 and said softly that the Apaches were
 in camp less than a mile away. Then
 he guided the soldiers and horses slowly
 and silently up the foothill, and when
 the men had picketed their horses and crawled to the brow of the hill they saw | the trailed Apaches in camp down in
 the valley on the other side of the hill. One of the difficult things to deter mine is the age of a trail. If the track Is | very fresh 1t will show moisture where | the earth is turned up. Should rain have | fallen the edges will be less clear and will be washed down somewhat, The
 scout can tell by a glance what tribe of
 Indians has made a given trail, it's age and every particular about it as truth fully as though he had himself seen the cavalcade pass, but this comes after years of observation and familiarity with the customs and dress of the sev- eral tribes. Major Robinson, U. s. A. tretired), of Pomona, Cal says that once, while going with veteran scout and a guard to Fort Bowie to pay the soldiers, he stopped his horse and point
 ed to a well-defned bear track in the dry sand of the desert. The scout gazed at 1t moment and said: "No, that's not bear track"
 Well, if I ever saw a bear track, and I've seen thosands of them, that's one"
 Cant help it, Major. but that's no bear track"
 Quickly alighting, the Major pointed out the heal and toes of the track as clearly defined as if made few min utes before
 Well" said the scout If 1t does look | like bears track, still 1t isn't one. The | marks you imagine to be the heels and toes are made by those spires of foxtail | graes, which, bent by the wind. scoop out the sand In the manner you sec
 The indentation in the sand was care fully examined, and the scout was right. |
 When the murderous Apache Kid | was hunted along the boundary be- tween the United States and Mexico a few years ago a detachment of cav valry that had traled the fugitives across the San simon Valley to the Pc dregosa Mountains came to an area, several miles square, of rock forma tion. If the soldiers had scrutinized that rock with magnifying glasses their unpraticed eyes would probably never have discovered what course the Apache Kid and his gang had taken across that finty floor. The lieutenant and the sergeant thought that the trail was at an end and that they might as well turn back to Fort Huachuca. But Jose Caralaz, a famous scout (since shot to death by an Apache assassin), was in the party, and. diemountlng, he walked slowly over the place where the trail in the sand led up to the trackless granite ledge. He was an hour at the work, The rest of the party smoked and looked on. He went over the rocks with the care and nicety of a botanlst examining a flower. He surveyed the canyon mouth and resumed his studious walk over the ledge.
 Come, come; this way him go him put rags on him horse hoof, but him no fool me" drawled the scout at length.
 Then on hand and knees he showed the lieutenant how there was a train of very minute particles of jute on the gray, rocky floor straight toward the mouth of a distant canyon It was then as plain to the detachment as the monday sun that the fleeing Indians had untitled their horses hoofs with so as to close at the rock the trailing after them. The chase after Apache Kid was renewed, but again he escaped across the border line into Sonora, Mexico, and there the United States soldiers had to stop. In the grass a trail can be seen for a | ong time, as the blades will be bent in he direction followed by the party and even after 1t has recovered it's natural { position an expert trailer will detect a slight difference in the color of the grass that has been stepped 0u and l hat growing around it. So the appear { 'nce of the tracks win also show him ' he gait at which the party was travel l ing, and he thus knows how to regu- z