The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1901-12-19
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One December. while l was out on my
ranch, so much work had to be done that
II was within week OF Christmas be-
fore we were able 10 take any thought
for the Christmas dinner. The winter
set IN late that year and there had been
comparatively little cold weather, but
one day the ice on the river had been
sufficiently strong to enable us to haul
up wagon load of flour, with enough
salt pork Il last through the winter. and
a very few cans of timed goods to be
used 1t special feaSts We had some
bushels of potatoes, the heroic victors of
struggle for existence, in which the
rest of our garden vegetables had sue
cnnbed to drought frost and grasshop-
pers, and we also had some wild plums
and dried elk venison. But we had no
fresh meat, and so one day my foreman
and | agreed to make a hunt on the NOR
row.
Accordingly one of the cowboys rode
out in the frosty afternoon to fetch in
the saddle band from the plateau three
miles off, where they were grazing. 1t
was necessary TO get to the hunting
grounds by sunrise, and it still lacked a
couple of hours of dawn when the fore
man Weakened me with a touch as | Law
asleep beneath the buffalo robes. Dress
ing hurriedly and breakfasting on a cup
of coffee and some mouthfuls of bread
and Jerked elk meat, we slipped out to
the barn, threw the saddles on the horses
and were off.
The air was bitterly chill. The cold had
been severe for two days, so that the riv-
er ice would again bear horses. 1t had al
ready frozen once and then again thawed.
Beneath the light covering of powdery
snow we could feel the rough ground like
Nrinkled iron under the horses hoofs.
There was no moon. but the stars shone
brilliantly down through the cold. clear
ar and our willing horses galloped swift
y across the long bottom on which the
nchhouse stood, threading their way
q tiy among the clumps of sprawling
ssgoLrush mile off we crossed the
Evor, the ice cracking with noises like
? st"l shots as our horses picked their
Nay glngerly over 1t. On the opposite
81 WIS dense jungle of burberry
b:sh"s, and on breaking through this we
f. ad ourselves galloping up a long,
N.ating valley which led back many
les into the hills. The crannies and lit
lie side ravines were filled with brush
wood and groves of stunted ash. BY this
time there was faint flush of gray in
the east. and as we rode silently along
We could make out dimly the tracks made
by the wild animals as they had passed
and repassed in the snow. Several times
we dismounted to examine them A cou-
pie of coyotes, possibly frightened by our
approach, had trotted and Hoped up the
valley ahead of us, leaving trail like
that of two dogs. The sharper, more del
icate footprints Of fox crossed our path,
and outside one long patch of brushwood
series of round imprints in the snow
betrayed where a bobcat, as plainsmen
term the small lynx, had been lurking
around to try to pick up rabbit or prai-
RE fowl.
AS the dawn redeemed and it became
light enough to see objects some little
way off we began to sit erect in our sad
dies and to scan the hillsides sharply for
sight of feeding deer Hitherto we had
seen no deer tracks save inside the bull
berry bushes by the river, and we knew
that the deer which lived in that mpene-
trable jungle were cunning white tails
and that in such place they could only
be hunted by the aid of a hound. But
just before sunrise we came on three
lines of heart shaped footmarks in the
snow which showed where as many deer
had just crossed a little plain ahead of
us. They were walking lesurely, and
from the lay OF the land we believed we
would find them over the ridge. where