Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1912-12-15
would go off on wrong trail.
A Terrible Fighter.

animal who looked as if his ancestry had in
Guided toadhsh. He was terrible fighter,
but his unvarying attitude toward mankind
was one Of ELUSIVE and rather foolish affec-
ton. In fight he could whip any of the
hounds save Badge, and he was far more
willing than Badge to accept punishment
There was also a funny little black and
tan, named Skip, most friendly little fell
low, especially fond of riding in front or be-
hind the saddle of any one of lis who would
take him up, although perfectly able to
travel 40 miles day on his own sturdy legs
if he had to, and then to join in the worry
OF the quarry when once it had been shot.
Porcuplnes abounded in the woods. and, one
or two OF the terriers and half dozen of
the hounds positively refused to learn any
wisdom, invariably attacking each porcu-
pine they found; the result being that we
had to spend many minutes in removing
the quilts from their mouths eyes, etc. A
white bull-terrier would come in from such
combat with his nose literally looking like
glorified pin cushion, and many Of the
splnes we had to take out with nippers.
The terriers never ran with the hounds, but
stayed behind with the horses until they
heard the hounds barking "bayed' or
'treed," when they forthwith tore toward
them.
Skip adopted me as his special master,
rode with me whenever | would let him, and
slept on the foot OF my bed at night, growl-
ing defiance at anything that came near
grew attached to the friendly, bright little
fellow, and at the end of the hunt took him
home with me as a playmate for the
children.
It was great, wild country. In the creek
bottoms there wele a good many ranches
but we only occasionally passed by these
on OF. way to our hunting grounds in the
wilderness along the edge OF the snow line
The mountains crowded close together in
chain, peak and tableland; all the higher
ones were wrapped i'll an unrent shroud of
snow We saw good many deer, and
fresh sign of elk, but no elk themselves, al
though we were informed that bands were
to be found in the high spruce timber where
the SHOWS were so deep that it would have
been impossible to go on horseback, while
going on foot would have been inconceiv-
ably fatiguing The country was open The
high peaks were bare OF trees. Cotton
woods and occasionally dwarfed birch or
maple and willows, fringed the streams
aspens grew in groves higher up. There
were pinyons and cedars on the slopes Of
the foothills, spruce clustered here and
there i'll the cooler ravines and valleys and
high up the mountains. The dense oak
brush and thick growing cedars were hard
~.i.. 4
The First Bear in Sight
The first day after reaching camp we rode
for / hours over very difficult country,
but without getting above the snow line
Finally the dogs got on the fresh trail OF
bobcat, and away they went. A bobcat will
often give good run, much better on the
average than cougar and this one puzzled
the dogs not little at first 1t scrambled
out OF one deep valley, crossing and recross-
ing the rock lodges where its scent was hard
to follow; then plunged into another valley.
Meanwhile we had ridden up on the high
mountain spot between the two valleys. and
after scrambling and galoping to and fro as
the cry veered from point to point when the
dogs changed directions, we saw them cross
into the second valley. Here again they
took good deal of time to puzzle out the
trail, and became somewhat scattered We
had dismounted and were standing by the
horses heads, listening to the baying ard
trying to decide Which, way we shout o.,
when Stewart suddenly pointed us out
bear. 1t was on the other side OF the valley
from u.s. and perhaps half mile away, gal
Looping down hill with two of the hounds
after it, and in the sunlight its fur looked
glossy black. In minute or two it passed
out OF sight in the thick-growing timber at