The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-09-14

thlng to get m or out or 1T, but more comfortable device was never contrived. With the thermometer anywhere below zero. with your feet in the campfire, sheltered from the falling snow by an "A" tent, you can sleep as comfortable as you would at home. even though the big gray and black wolves may keep up their dismal howl all night, with the shriller notes of the coyote as an inter- Jude.
 With no one but his half-breed guide fer company, and his rifle at his side, President Roosevelt has slept many a night there alone. It is the duty-the business-of the guide to keep the fire we'll aIighr. for without it numbering cinnamon bear, or even a grizzly, might take fancy to pay one a visit. But all wild animals fear fire, and though the shine cs the encircling wolves eyes may be seen like sparks of an electric light. not fifty yards away, they will come no nearer. even though the hanging venison or elks' haunch on the limbs of the surrounding trees may be ever so tempting. ?.
 President Roosevelt is not a hunter with the blown barreled double gun. The man who uses that is what the western big game killers call "a bird hunter"
 He is a r!fieman pure and simple. He does occasionally use the shotgun, but it would not be suitable weapon for elk,elk, blacktail bear and white, or, in the northern mountains, along our Brit ish Columbian line, the occasional moose. President Roosevelt has had much experience with white hunters and red, and Canadian coureurs du bais In one fact he concurs with all ex- perienced mountain men. It is that an Indian. be he full blood or half breed
 is never as skilful hunter as the white man. T have had many guides and trackers." he said to a friend not long since. but though an Indian may be 1 even more expert in knowledge of the ways of game or any wild thing than the white man, he is never his equal in killing it or as crack shot. I never 1 have known an Indian who could shoot as straight or was as certain of his 1 cgarry when he did shoot as the best white hunters. Then they will not take the pains in keeping their rifles in good shooting condition that the white hun 1 te" does. The white man always real l izes that his life may sometime depend ! on his sureness. the readiness and the 1 accuracy O. his weapons. The Indian knows i;. too, but somehow it does not I move him to take the care of them that the white man always does.t5 <..s The president has used several makes | nf rifles hut ha has tzyo 1,pa,, ,tI11;oI, ba l specially relies. One is a single shot I arm with a Sharp's action, upon which | he has had fitted S0-inch 45-calibre 1 barrel weighing about eight pounds l This gun is sighted with the ordinary | old time notch-an-h head sight. with a l Lyman peep-sight on the rifles grip that can be turned down or taken off | in a moment when not intended to be | used This arm shoots 100-grain cart ridge. and 450-grain 45-calibre bullet | It has an effective range of 800 yards Up to 400 or 300 he can kill an elk or any similar sized animal in five shots out oi
 fen if he has good position. Of course | he never uses the 1Oo-year-old crescent. rigged stock on his rifle. T have found
 a heavy shotgun butt the best ant readies stock that was ever devised, anG
 have i. on all my guns he said.
 The other rifle is one built for him es- I pecially by company famous for iti repeating rifles It carries four cart ridges in it's cartridge receiver, and ons
 in the barrel, always ready for instant l use This is perhaps my favoritt ! arm he said a short time since. talk
 ing of his panther hunting trip to Colo rado. It is also 30-inch barreled rife N weighing complete tbaut ten pounds
 It is sighted, as the other is, with al l ivory front sight and a wide shallow I V-shaped notch in the back sight and $ i turn-up peep on the rifles grip. This |
 the weapon with which he killed four
 teen cougars, or, as we in the south cal
 them, partners. The Colorado panther
 is not as large as his fellow-feline ot
 Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, bu
 he is a pretty formidable beast t
 tackle, after all. An animal that car
 pick up yearllng salf In his jaws ant
 climb over six-railed fence with it
 and never once lose his grip, would no
 be a pleasant antagonist to meet if h.
 were hungry and you alone with noth ing in your hand but bird gun. Tn president has killed many hundred deer
 black tails and the Virginia species
 besides elk galore. 4 He got west 1ittl,
 too late for the buffalo is any quantity Still. he has one or two shaggy head that fell to his rife, which in massive
 ness are equal to any found in old Ki Carson's days. "s
 The writer of this saw in 1860 wha was called the great southern herd O
 buffalo crossing the Red Fork of tn,
 Arkansas. in what is now known al
 western Oklahoma. The column wa!
 probably three miles in width and how long could not be seen. Our four troops
 of the Second U. S. cavalry iwaitet
 nearly three days to get our baggag,
 and ammunition wagons ahead, for the,
 were moving directly across the trail
 Finally Major Van Dorn. in command
 concluded we were losinf too muel
 time. and we made al detour that tool
 us to another ford higher up on the riv
 er When we lost sight of them tn
 rear end of the column of buffalos hai not come in sight. And to think of il to-day the largest herd known consist
 oe about eighty calves in all, and bu for the constant vigilance of the miner and ranchmen in the little valley wher
 this remnant of mighty race of beast
 nowl ives they would have been exter
 minated long ago by Cheyennes, Co , manches and Lipans and half-wil