Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1914-01-23

deer have disappeared from their former haunts,
and in much-hunted localities are only to be
found on the highest points where timber grows.
Late in the season, when heavy snow falls, bands
of wapiti and mule deer are driven from their
refuge in the Yellowstone park and move down
to lower grounds in such places as Jackson's
Hole or the valley Of the Soshone river. Woe be-
tide these luckless wanderers If the open season
is still in force, for at the head of every pass lead
ing out of the game reserve are armed bodies Of
meat-hunters, who shoot on sight old or young.
male or female, regardless Of age. or sex, every
deer that is seen. More shame is 1t to the au-
thorities who still permit the sale of deer meat in
the surrounding towns.
Vast herds of deer congregate in the low
grounds during severe winters, and many hun
dreds Of them perish for want Of food. 1t is no
Uncommon event for kind-hearted farmers to feed
numbers of wapiti from their stores of hay. But
the expense of this is more than these hard-work-
ing individuals can stand, and something surely
should be done by the United States authorities to
provide for the needs of these fine animals, which
have been driven from their winter feeding
grounds by the settlers and their cattle.
The modus operandi Of making a trip after
wapiti is too well known to need description. If
undertaken early in the season by a sportsman
who is well equipped with men and pack-horses.
the expedition is rather in the nature Of a pleas
ant picnic. The climatic conditions in September
and early October are generally perfect, while the
absence Of mosquitoes ana other biting flies make
these regions appear a Paradise to one who has
done much big-game hunting further northwest in
the real wilds of North America, which are only
now to be found in northern British Columbia
and Alaska. But if a sportsman delays his trip
until late in the fall, and then camps, as the
writer has done, at an altitude of over ten thou
sand feet, he will find the early frosts and snow
make life in a tent, even in Wyoming, rather cold
er than is necessary for personal comfort.
The way in which an American pack-horse can
thread it's way through dense timber, or follow a
narrow, snake-like trail across dangerous rock
slides, is little short of marvellous. 1t is an inter
esting sight to see a long line of these sure-footed
animals threading their way in single file along
the face of a dangerous precip:ce, often treading
in loose, rolling rocks, in places where one false
step means a sheer drop of two thousand or three
thousand feet into empty space. Yet it is seldom
that one falls of the trail. If this does happen,
the owner may bid goodby to his horse and all
that he carries, since rarely anything but frag-
ments are found afterwards on searching the
valley below.
Strange to say, although the Wyoming wapiti
have developed unwOnted cunning in seeking
their living and feeding grounds, the are still COM
paratively stupid animals to stalk. Especially SO
is this the case with treveling bulls when they are
running in search OF COWS. Then, by means of
whistling in a very poor initiative style of the
bulls challenge, a solitary bull can often be called
up to within a few yards of the hunter. The
follow a bull for two miles through the forest,
answering his repeated call at intervals, until
finally they have come face to face a few yards