Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1908-09-03

lerTlHS 10 SpeHll ndll II udI OF more III
patient waiting and careful stalking;
but If he is travelling, and is therefore
cramped for time. he must take his
chances. even Mt the cost of burning
q good deal Of powder
| was finally helped to success by Il
characteristic freak of the game / was
following. No other animals are as
keen-sighted. or are normally as wary
as prong-hornS; but no others are SO
whimsical and odd in their behavior
at times, or so subpect to fits of the
most stupid curiosity and panic. Late
in the afternoon, on topping Il rise
saw two good bucks racing off about
three hundred yards to one side;
scorched desolation of patches of Bad
Lands, | reached the rolling prairie.
The heat and drought had long burned
the short grass dull brown; the bot
toms of what had been pools were
covered with hard, dry, cracked earth.
The day was cloudless, and the heat
oppressive. There were many ante
lope, but | got only one shot, breaking
Il bucks leg; and though | followed it
for couple of hours | could not over
take it. BY this time it was late in
the afternoon, and | was far away
from the river; so | pushed for Il creek
in the bed of which | had always
found pools of water, especially to-
wards the head. as is usual with plains
water CURSES. TO my chagrin, how
ever, they all proved to be dry; and
though | rode up the creek bed to-
ward the head, carefully searching fo"
any sign of water. night closed on me
before ] found any. For two or three
hours | stumbled on, leading my horse,
in my fruitlesS search; then a tumble
over Il cut bank in the dark warned
me that l might as well stay where |
was for the rest of the warm night
Accordingly ! unsaddled the horse,
and tied him TO sage brush; after
awhile he began to feed on the dewy
grass. AT first | was too thirsty to
sleep. Finally | fell into sumber,
and when l awoke at dawn | felt no
thirst. For an hour or two more |
continued my search for water in the
creek bed; then abandoned it and rode
straight for the river BY the time
we reached it my thirst had come
back with redoubled force. my mouth
was parched. and the horse was in
quite as bad plight; we rushed down
to the brink, and it seemed as if we
could neither of us ever drink our fill
of the tepid, rather muddy water. OF
course this experience was merely I'M
pleasant; thirst is not source of real
danger in the plains country proper,
whereas in the hdeOuS deserts that
extend from southern Idaho through
Utah and Nevada to Arizona it ever
mcnaccS with death the hunter and eX-
plorer.
In the plains the weather is apt to
be in extremes: the heat is tropical
the cold arctic. and the droughts are
relieved by furious floods. These are
generally more severe and lasting in
the spring, after the melting of the
snow; and fierce local freshets follow
the occasional CloudburStS. The large
rivers then become wholly impassa-
bic, and even the smaller are formi-
dabie obstacles 1t is not easy 70 get
ttlilt HtIDSN IL SNOlltu SlIpdUl, W mere
the current runs like a turbid mill-race
over the bed of shifting quicksand
Once five of us took a thousand head
of trail steers across the Little Mis-
souri, when the river was up, and it
was no light task. The muddy current
was boiling past the banks covered
with driftwood and foul yellow froth,
on1 tln fpiobtanaI cbranl- from
entering it. At last. by hard riding,
with much loud shouting and swing
ing of ropes, we got the leaders in. and
the whole herd followed. After them
we went in our turn, the horses swim
ming at one moment, and the next
staggering and flOundering through
the quickSand. / was riding my pet
cutting horse. Muley. which has the
provoking habit of making great
bounds where the water is just not
deep enough for swimming: once he
aln'.tt unseItcd me- Some of the cat
tie wr"G caught by the currents and
ROLLED Owe: anl over: most of these we
We're able. with the help Of our ropes
to put on their feet again; only one
was drowned, or rather chokcd in Il
qui"kSand. Many SWam down stream
and in consequence struck u difficult
landing. where the river ran under
cut bank: these we had to haul out
with our ropes.
Althor%h I have often had Il horse
down in quiclsand or in crossing
swollen river. ana have had to work
hard to save him. | have never myself
lost one under such circumstances.
Yet once | saw the horse of one of my
men drown under him directly in front
of the ranch house, while he was try
ing to cross the river. This was In
early spring, soon after the ice had
broken.
When making long wagon trips over
the great plains, antelope often offer
the only source of meat SuDDly save