Outdoor pastimes of an American hunterRoosevelt, Theodore
General
Outdoor pastimes of an American hunter
Roosevelt, Theodore
Hunting -- United States; Hunting -- West (U.S.)
The run had been about ten miles in an almost straight line. At the
finish no other riders were in sight, but soon after we crossed the
divide on our return, and began to come down the long slope toward the
creek, we were joined by Tom Burnett and Bony Moore; while some three or
four miles ahead on a rise of the prairie we could see the wagon in
which Burke Burnett was driving General Young. Other punchers and
straggling greyhounds joined us, and as the wolf, after travelling some
five miles, began to recover his wind and show a tendency to fight for
his freedom, Abernethy tied up his jaws with his handkerchief and handed
him over to Bony Moore, who packed him on the saddle with entire
indifference, the wolf himself showing a curious philosophy. Our horses
had recovered their wind and we struck into a gallop down the slope;
then as we neared the wagon we broke into a run, Bony Moore brandishing
aloft with one hand the live wolf, its jaws tied up with a handkerchief,
but otherwise unbound. We stopped for a few minutes with Burnett and the
general to tell particulars of the hunt. Then we loped off again toward
camp, which was some half dozen miles off. I shall always remember this
run and the really remarkable feat Abernethy performed. Colonel Lyon had
seen him catch a big wolf in the same way that he caught this coyote. It
was his usual method of catching both coyotes and wolves. Almost equally
noteworthy were the way in which he handled and helped his greyhounds,
and the judgment, resolution, and fine horsemanship he displayed. His
horse showed extraordinary endurance.
The third day we started out as usual, the chuck wagon driving straight
to a pool far out on the prairie, where we were to meet it for lunch.
Chief Quanah’s three wives had joined him, together with a small boy and
a baby, and they drove in a wagon of their own. Meanwhile the riders and
hounds went south nearly to Red River. In the morning we caught four
coyotes and had a three miles run after one which started too far ahead
of the dogs, and finally got clean away. All the four that we got were
started fairly close up, and the run was a breakneck scurry, horses and
hounds going as hard as they could put feet to the ground. Twice the
cowboys distanced me; and twice the accidents of the chase, the sudden
twists and turns of the coyote in his efforts to take advantage of the
ground, favored me and enabled me to be close up at the end, when
Abernethy jumped off his horse and ran in to where the dogs had the
coyote. He was even quicker with his hands than the wolf’s snap, and in
a moment he always had the coyote by the lower jaw.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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