Northwestern States -- Description and travel; Oregon -- Description and travel; Overland journeys to the Pacific
The mountain region was as wild as it had been when I first saw it. One
day, while we were still west of the Rocky Mountains, in Wyoming, two
antelopes crossed the road about a hundred yards ahead of us, a buck and
a doe. The doe soon disappeared, but the buck came near the road and
stood gazing at us in wonderment, as if to ask, "Who the mischief are
you?"
[Illustration: Deep ruts had been worn in the solid rock of the trail
through the mountain country.]
Our dog Jim soon scented him, and away they went up the mountain side
until Jim got tired and came back to the wagon. Then the antelope
stopped on a little eminence on the mountain, and for a long distance we
could see him plainly against a background of sky.
At another time we actually got near enough to get a shot with our
kodaks at two antelopes; but they were too far off to make good
pictures. Our road was leading us obliquely up a gentle hill, gradually
approaching nearer to one of the antelopes. I noticed that he would come
toward us for a while and then turn around and look the other way for a
while. Then we saw what at first we took to be a kid, or young antelope;
but soon we discovered that it was a coyote wolf, prowling on the track
of the antelope, and watching both of us. Just after the wagon had
stopped, I saw six big, fat sage hens feeding not more than twice the
length of the wagon away, just as I had seen them in 1852.
[Illustration: Jim, the collie that made the journey from Washington to
Washington.]
The dog, Jim, had several other adventures with animals on the way.
First of all, he and Dave did not get along very well. Once Dave caught
Jim under the ribs with his right horn, which was bent forward and stood
out nearly straight, and tossed him over some sage brush near by.
Sometimes, if the yoke prevented him from getting a chance at Jim with
his horn, he would throw out his nose and snort, just like a horse that
has been running at play and stops for a moment's rest. But Jim would
manage to get even with him. Sometimes we put loose hay under the wagon
to keep it out of the storm, and Jim would make a bed on it. Then woe
betide Dave if he tried to get any of that hay! I saw Jim one day catch
the ox by the nose and draw blood. You may readily imagine that the war
was renewed between them with greater rancor than ever. They never did
become friends.
One day Jim got his foot under the wheel of our wagon, and I was sure it
was broken, but it was not; yet he nursed it for a week by riding in the
wagon. He never liked to ride in the wagon except during a thunderstorm.
Once a sharp clap of thunder frightened Jim so that he jumped from the
ground clear into the wagon while it was in motion and landed at my
feet. How in the world he could do it I never could tell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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