Hunting Trips of a Ranchman : Sketches of Sport on the Northern Cattle Plains

G/C Theodore Roosevelt in Hunting Costume. Drawn by Henry Sandham. Engraved by E. Heinemann. PRESIDENTIAL EDITION HUNTING TRIPS OF A RANCHMAN SKETCHES OF SPORT ON THE NORTHERN CATTLE PLAINS BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF THE NAVAL WAR OF 1812," "THE WINNING OF " THE WEST," THE WILDERNESS HUNTER " "AMERICAN IDEALS," ETC. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON Ifcnfcfcerbocfter press COPYRIGHT BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 1885 Vbe ftnicfecrbocfeer presi, Hew fiock TO THAT KEENEST OF SPORTSMEN AND TRUEST OF FRIENDS MY BROTHER ELLIOTT ROOSEVELT iii INTRODUCTORY NOTE The seven heads of large game figured in this book are faithfully copied from the originals, shot by myself, and now in the have been my possession ; proportions verified with the camera. The other engravings and etchings are for the most part based on photographs of scenery, costumes, etc., taken by myself while in the West, and are accurate rep- resentations of Western landscapes, as also of ranch life and hunting on the plains. Most, although by no means all, of my hunting has been done on the Little Missouri River, in the neighbor- hood of my two ranches, the Elkhorn and Chimney Butte the nearest town the little hamlet of ; being Medora so named, I may mention for the benefit of the future local historian, in honor of the wife of the Marquis de Mores, one of the first stockmen to come to the place. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. CHIMNEY BUTTE RANCH, MEDORA, DAKOTA, May, 1885. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. RANCHING IN THE BAD LANDS. The northern cattle plains Stock-raising Cowboys, their dress and character My ranches in the Bad Lands of the Little Missouri Indoor amusements Books Pack-rats Birds Ranch life The round-up Indians Ephemeral nature of ranch life Foes of the stockmen Wolves, their ravages Fighting with dogs Cougar My brother kills one One killed by blood-hounds The chase one of the chief pleasures of ranch life Hunters and cowboys Weapons Dress Hunting-horses Target-shooting and game-shooting . 1 CHAPTER II. WATER-FOWL. Stalking wild geese with rifle Another goose killed in early morning Snow- goose shot with rifle from beaver meadow Description of plains beaver Its rapid extinction Ducks Not plenty on cattle plains Teal Duck-shooting in course of wagon trip to eastward Mallards and wild geese in cornfields Eagle and ducks Curlews Noisiness and curiosity Grass plover Skunks . 43 CHAPTER III. THE GROUSE OF THE NORTHERN CATTLE PLAINS. Rifle and shot-gun Sharp-tailed prairie fowl Not often regularly pursued Killed for pot Booming in spring Their young A day after them with shot-gun in August At that time easy to kill Change of habits in fall Increased wariness Shooting in snow-storm from edge of canyon Killing them with rifle in early morning Trip after them made by my brother and myself Sage- fowl The grouse of the desert Habits Good food Shooting them Jack- rabbit An account of a trip made by my brother, in Texas, after wild turkey Shooting them from the roosts Coursing them with greyhounds . 66 CHAPTER IV. THE DEER OF THE RIVER BOTTOMS. The White-tail deer best known of American large game The most difficult to exterminate A buck killed in light snow about Christmas-time The species viii Hunting Trips of a Ranchman. very canny Two "tame fawns" Habits of deer Pets Method of still- hunting the white-tail Habits contrasted with those of antelope Wagon trip to the westward Heavy cloud-burst Buck shot while hunting on horseback Moonlight ride . -. 102 CHAPTER V. THE BLACK-TAIL DEER. The black-tail and white-tail deer compared Different zones where game are found Hunting on horseback and on foot Still-hunting Anecdotes Rapid extermination First buck shot Buck shot from hiding-place Differ- ent qualities required in hunting different kinds of game Still-hunting the black-tail a most noble form of sport Dress required Character of habitat Bad Lands Best time for shooting, at dusk Difficult aiming Large buck killed in late evening Fighting capacity of bucks Appearance of black-tail Difficult to see and to hit Indians poor shots Riding to hounds Track- ing Hunting in fall weather Three killed in a day's hunting on foot A hunt on horseback Pony turns a somersault Two bucks killed by one ball at very long range 126 CHAPTER VI. A TRIP ON THE PRAIRIE. The prong-horn antelope Appearance, habits, and method of hunting Hunting on horseback Wariness, speed, curiosity, and incapacity to make high jumps Fawns as pets Eagles Horned frogs Rattlesnakes Trip on the prairie in June Sights and sounds Desolate plains Running antelope Night camp Prairie dogs Badgers Skylarks A long shot Clear weather Camping among Medicine Buttes Sunset on plateau .- 180 CHAPTER VII. A TRIP AFTER MOUNTAIN SHEEP. Spell of bitter weather News brought of mountain sheep Start after them False alarm about bear Character of Bad Lands Description of mountain sheep or big-horn Its wariness Contrasted with other game Its haunts The hardest of all game to successfully hunt Our trip Cold weather and tiresome walking Very rough ground Slippery, ice-covered crags Ram killed 220 CHAPTER VIII. THE LORDLY BUFFALO. Extinction of the vast herds Causes A veritable tragedy of the animal world- Sentimental and practical sides Traces left by buffalo Skulls and trails Merciless destruction by hunters and by cattle-men Development of mountain race of the buffalo Buffalo-hunting Noble sport Slight danger A man killed My brother charged Adventure of my cousin with a wounded buffalo Contents. IX Three of my men and wounded cow Buffalo and cattle Hunting them on foot Hunting on horseback My brother in Texas I take a trip in buffalo country Wounded bull escapes Miserable night camp Miss a cow in rain Bad luck Luck turns Kill a bull A wagon-trip 241 CHAPTER IX. STILL-HUNTING ELK ON THE MOUNTAINS. Former range of elk Rapid destruction Habits Persecuted by hunters Other foes Lordly game Trip to Bighorn Mountains Managing pack-train See elk and go into camp Follow up band in moccasins Kill two Character of the deep woods Sights and sounds of the forest Blue grouse Snow Cold weather Trout Calling of bull elk Killing elk in burned timber Animals of the wilderness Kill great bull elk Kill another 271 CHAPTER X. OLD EPHRAIM. Dangerous game, but much less dangerous than formerly Old-time hunters and weapons Grizzly and other ferocious wild beasts Only fights if wounded Anecdotes of their killing and wounding men Attacks stock Our hunting on the Bighorn Mountains Merrifield kills black bear Grizzly almost comes into camp Tracks of grizzly Watch for one at elk carcass Follow him up and kill him Merrifield kills one Five shot with seven bullets She and cub killed Return home . 297 ADDENDUM 322 INDEX 325 HUNTING TRIPS OF A RANCHMAN CHAPTER I. RANCHING IN THE BAD LANDS. HE great middle plains of the United States, parts of which are still scantily peopled by men of Mexican parentage, while other parts have been but recently won from the warlike tribes of Horse Indians, now form a broad pastoral belt, stretching in a north and south line from British America to the Rio Grande. Throughout this great belt of grazing land almost the only industry is stock-raising, which is here engaged in on a scale and it is covered really gigantic ; already nearly with the ranches of the stockmen, except on those isolated tracts (often themselves of great extent) from which the red men look hopelessly and sullenly out upon their old hunting-grounds, now roamed over by the countless herds of long-horned cattle. The northern portion of this belt is that which has been most lately thrown open to the whites and it is with this that we have to do. ; part only 2 Ranching in tke Bad Lands. The northern cattle plains occupy the basin of the Missouri that all of the land Upper ; is, they occupy drained by the tributaries of that river, and by the river itself, before it takes its long trend to the southeast. They stretch from the rich wheat farms of Central Dakota to the Rocky Mountains, and southward to the Black Hills and the Big Horn chain, thus including all of Montana, Northern Wyoming, and extreme Western Dakota. The character of this rolling, broken, plains country is everywhere much the same. It is a high, nearly treeless region, of light rainfall, crossed by streams which are sometimes rapid torrents and sometimes merely strings of shallow pools. In places it stretches out into deserts of alkali and sage brush, or into nearly level prairies of short grass, for miles without a break elsewhere extending many ; there are of considerable rolling hills, sometimes height ; and in other places the ground is rent and broken into the most fantastic shapes, partly by volcanic action and partly by the action of water in a dry climate. These latter por- tions form the famous Bad Lands. Cotton-wood trees fringe the streams or stand in groves on the alluvial bottoms of the rivers of the hills and can- ; and some steep yon sides are clad with pines or stunted cedars. In the early spring, when the young blades first sprout, the land looks and but the rest of the green bright ; during year there is no such appearance of freshness, for the short bunch grass is almost brown, and the gray-green sage bush, bitter and withered-looking, abounds everywhere, and gives a peculiarly barren aspect to the landscape.

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