Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1909-03-11

! partial to the water and in the warm
summer nights will come down into
| the prairie ponds and stand knee-deep
| in them, eating the succulent marsh
! plants. Most of the plains rivers flow
! through sandy or muddy beds with no
| vegetable growth. and to these, OF
course, the deer merely come down TO
! drink or refresh themselves by bath
ing, as they contain nothing to eat.
| At times the Whitehall will lie so
close that it may almost be trodden on.
One June morning | was riding down
along the river. and came to lolI
bottom. crowded with rose bushes. all
in bloom. 1t was crossed in every di-
rection by cattle paths, and a drove Of
! long-horned Texans We're scattege
over ii. \ cow-pony gets accustomed
10 travelling at speed along the cattle
, trails, and the one bestrode threaded
It's way among the twisted narrow
paths with perfect ease, lopiug RAPIDLY
onward through a sea of low rose
bushes, covered with the sweet, pinh
flowers. They gave q bright color t
the whole plain. while the air Wa
filed with the rich, fun songs of the
yellow breasted meadow larks, as thej
perched on the topmOst sprays Of the
little trees. Suddenly Il Whitehall doe
sprang up almost from under the
horses feet and scudded off with her
white flag Haunting. There was no
reason for harming her. and she made
a pretty picture as she bounded lightly
off among the rose-red flowers, pass.
ing without heed through the ranks of
| the long-horned and savage-looking
steers.
Doubtless she had a little spotted
fawn not far away. These wee fel-
lows soon after birth grow very cum
ming and able to take care of them
selves, keeping in the densest part of
the brush, through which they run and
dodge like a rabbit. If taken young
they grow very tame aud are mos;
dainty pets. One which we had round
the house answered well to its name
1t was at first fed with milk. which
1t tapped eagerly from saucer, shar
ing the meal with the two cats. VIII.
rather resented its presence and cuff.
ed it heartily when they thought /.
was greedy and was taking more THAI
it's share. AS it grew older 1t wou'G
eat bread or potatoes from our hands
and was perfectly fearless. At night
it was let go or put in the cow-shsd
whichever was handiest, but il was
generally round in time for breakfas
next morning A blue ribbon with
bell attached was hung round its neck
in the end 1t shared the fate of all
pets, for one night 1t went off anu
never came back again.
Only once have ! ever killed a white
tail buck while hunting on horsebark.
and at that time | had been expecting
to fall in with black-tail.
This was while we had been ma,lim@
a wagon trip to the westward follow
ing the old Keogh trail, which vi"
made by the heavy army wagons that
journeyed to Fort Keogh in the ole
days when the soldiers were, except
n few daring trappers, the only whit
men to be seen on the last great hun.
ing ground of the Indians. 1t was
abandoned as military route severai
years ago. and is now only rarely
travelled over either by the canvas
topped ranch-wagon of some wander
ing cattle -men-like ourselves-or else
by 4 small party of emigrants, in two
or three prairie schooners. which con
tain all their household goods. Never
theless, it Is still as plain and distinct
as ever. The two deep parallel rutS
cut into the sod by the wheels of the
heavy wagon, stretch for scores OF
miles in a straight line across the
level prairie, and take great turns ana
doublings to avoid the impossible por-
tions of the Bad Lands. The track is
always perfectly plain. for in the dry
climate of the western plains the ac-
tion of the weather tends to preserve
rather than to obliterate It; where ii
leads downhill, the snow water has
cut and widened the ruts into deep
gullies, so that wagon has at those
places to travel alongside the road
From any little rising in the prairie
the road can be seen a long way of
as a dark line, which, when near. re
solves itself into two sharply defined
parallel cuts.
On the trip in question we had al
first very bad weather. Leaving the
ranch in the morning. two of us, who
were mounted. pushed on ahead to
hunt. the wagon following slowly. with
couple of spare saddle ponies leading
behind it. Early in the afternoon. while
riding over the crest of a great divid"
which separates the drainage basina
of two important creeks, we saw that
a tremendous storm was brewing with
that marvellous rapidity which is 50
marked n characteristic of weather
changes on the plains.
We sprTad hard to get out of the
open, riding with loose reins for the
creek. The center Of the storm swept
by behind us, fairly across our track.
and we only got wipe from the tail
of It, Yet this itself we could not have
faced in the open. The first gust caught
as few hundred yards from the creek.
almost taking us from the saddle. aud
driving the rain and hail in stingng
level sheets against us. We galloped
to the edge of a deep wash-out scram
bled into ii at the risk of our neckS