Year: 1879

l


On those prairies where buffalo ant


deer and antelope have run so man.


years, there are vast quantities of ole


bones lying about. These old bones ar


of some commercial value. My brothe


and I drew in rather over a hundred


tons during one winter. It was three
days trip to 90 out on the plains anC
get load. While out on these bone
trips, we made considerable account o
jack-rabbits; we had two greyhounds
on purpose to hunt them, and to hum
antelopes. I did most of the hunting
my brother was little lame that season
from ''hoist" he had received off s
reaper. We had one of the feetest
ponies for running I have ever seen
We called her Gilly. .'


I would get up before sunrise, call in
Sport and Grip Cthe two greyhounds)
then mount Gilly, and start after jack
rabbit for breakfast. One morning We
got after a pretty big jack, and ran him
past an emigrant party hauled up fol
the night. Two men and a woman were
stirring about; and Isaw two nice. rosy
girls peering out of the back end of q
wagon. They looked so inspiring that
I thought would show them little
fancy riding, So I touched Gilly and
told her to 20. At that, she just reached
out those white legs Of hers and straight.
ened to it. Oh, she went like an arrow
after the hounds and past that schooner,
and away on across the prairie. And,
right in the midst of her keenest run,
she broke into q wolf-hole! Believe it
or not, the mare turned a complete SON.
ersault! But l wasn't in the saddle
when she turned it; I had gone on.
and went on; went Oh my head, went
on my knees, went every way. I was
more than fifty feet from the pony when
I finally stopped! Sport and Grip pulled
up to see me 60, and the iack--he stopped
and looked. The wolf came out of the
ground and looked, too. They were all
80 interested in it, that they entirely
forgot each other. And back at the
wagon I saw six or seven men, women
and girls, standing motionless, with
their mouths open When I, at length,
got up, such cha! ha" came waited
on the wind as shall not soon forget.
It hurt me outrageously. 1got up feeling
as if were hundred and one years
old. As sfor the jack. he had taken leave;
and the dogs were barking into the wolf
hole. ....-- -..'r


Another young fellow, named Adney
Clark, and myself once ran .jack-rabbit
under settlers .louse, which stood out
by itself on the prairie. The rabbit ran
up to it and crawled under the sill. The
hounds could not get under. We went
round the house and then into it. There
was no one at home. We were deter
mined to have that jack, anyhow. So
we pulled up two or three boards of the
floor, and Ad took the fire poker and got
down under the floor, to poke out the
lack. He had not been down there long
when he uttered screech and came out
at one jump, with a great big rattle
snake hanging to his bootleg. I
grabbed a chair and killed the snake
Ad was so weak lie could not stand
alone and could scarcely speak. I pulled
off his boot. But there was no mark on
him. Fortunately, the snake had only
bitten his bootleg. We then poked out
the jack and the hounds grabbed him.


And at another time, when eight or
ten of US were out racing down jacks
with as many as thirteen hounds, we all
got after one big fellow, and at length
ran him into an old deserted "dig-out." "


A "dig out" or "root-out." is a
house dug in the ground. and the floor
of it is often four or five feet below the
level of the soil. The door of this one
was gone. The jack, being pretty hard
run, darted in there. In went the whole
pack of hounds alter him, and there was
no end of a pow-wow. Round and about
they went. yelping and growing down
there in the dark. We thought there
wouldI It be much left of that jack, when,
by-and-bye. out he came and leaped
away, leaving all the hounds y there
tumbling over one another, and the end
of the business was that we had to 60 in
and haul those dogs out by the legs
81. Nicholas.