Hunting -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- West (U.S.); West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
I loaded, and on reaching the spot where the stags were hit, Trusty at
once put his nose to the blood trail and stopped, looking up at me. I
made him a sign that it was all right, and when he had gone a little
distance he went off slightly to the right, took up the trail of the
second stag, and then again pointed with his nose to the ground, while
looking at me inquiringly. I again urged him on, and he went first to
one trail, then to the other, till I was able to look down into the
valley, where I saw the two stags lying dead, hardly ten yards apart. I
hastened up to them, and counted, on the antlers of the largest,
eight-and-thirty tines, and on the smaller one six-and-twenty; the
length of the two antlers was between five and six feet, and their
weight between thirty and forty pounds. The antlers of this stag only
differ from those of our stag through their size and the greater number
of tines: the great difference between them is in the weight, as the
giant stag is often double the size of ours. Both animals, it seemed,
had died nearly at the same moment, for they lay side by side with their
heads stretched out, as they had been running. After looking at them for
awhile in delight, I broke them up, gave Trusty his share, cut out a
couple of grinders as a recollection, and then went back to camp, when
my comrades were equally pleased at the result of my sport. The other
hunters had also been fortunate, and had killed a fat buffalo, while the
anglers had pulled a number of large fish out of the river. Owl went
with Antonio and Königstein to my stags, in order to fetch their skins
and meat, and I requested them to bring me the antlers of the largest
one, as I wished, were it possible, to carry them home. Though we liked
the place so much, we left it again next morning, abundantly supplied
with the best game, and Jack trotted after us with the enormous antlers
on the top of his packages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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