Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches: An Account of the Big Game of the United States and its Chase with Horse, Hound, and RifleRoosevelt, Theodore
History
Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches: An Account of the Big Game of the United States and its Chase with Horse, Hound, and Rifle
Roosevelt, Theodore
Hunting -- United States
Many of the southern planters have always kept packs of fox-hounds,
which are used in the chase, not only of the gray and the red fox, but
also of the deer, the black bear, and the wildcat. The fox the dogs
themselves run down and kill, but as a rule in this kind of hunting,
when after deer, bear, or even wildcat, the hunters carry guns with them
on their horses, and endeavor either to get a shot at the fleeing animal
by hard and dexterous riding, or else to kill the cat when treed, or the
bear when it comes to bay. Such hunting is great sport.
Killing driven game by lying in wait for it to pass is the very poorest
kind of sport that can be called legitimate. This is the way the deer
is usually killed with hounds in the East. In the North the red fox is
often killed in somewhat the same manner, being followed by a slow hound
and shot at as he circles before the dog. Although this kind of fox
hunting is inferior to hunting on horseback, it nevertheless has its
merits, as the man must walk and run well, shoot with some accuracy, and
show considerable knowledge both of the country and of the habits of the
game.
During the last score of years an entirely different type of dog from
the fox-hound has firmly established itself in the field of American
sport. This is the greyhound, whether the smooth-haired, or the
rough-coated Scotch deer-hound. For half a century the army officers
posted in the far West have occasionally had greyhounds with them, using
the dogs to course jack-rabbit, coyote, and sometimes deer, antelope,
and gray wolf. Many of them were devoted to this sport,--General Custer,
for instance. I have myself hunted with many of the descendants of
Custer's hounds. In the early 70's the ranchmen of the great plains
themselves began to keep greyhounds for coursing (as indeed they had
already been used for a considerable time in California, after the
Pacific coast jack-rabbit), and the sport speedily assumed large
proportions and a permanent form. Nowadays the ranchmen of the cattle
country not only use their greyhounds after the jack-rabbit, but also
after every other kind of game animal to be found there, the antelope
and coyote being especial favorites. Many ranchmen soon grew to own fine
packs, coursing being the sport of all sports for the plains. In Texas
the wild turkey was frequently an object of the chase, and wherever the
locality enabled deer to be followed in the open, as for instance in the
Indian territory, and in many places in the neighborhood of the large
plains rivers, the whitetail was a favorite quarry, the hunters striving
to surprise it in the early morning when feeding on the prairie.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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