Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
On my favorite horse, Pinto, I rode out with the Colonel for a
deer hunt. While riding along the canyon about two miles from
where the command had camped, I saw a large doe crossing the
canyon and coming down the hill toward us. I signaled the Colonel
to halt and I shot the doe, breaking her neck, while sitting on my
horse. I then told the Colonel to secrete himself behind a tree
and he would soon see the male deer, and he would stand a good
show to get a fine pair of horns. In a few moments two deer came
tracking the one I had shot.
"Be ready, now," said I, "and when he stops let him have it." So
when the deer were within about fifty yards I gave a keen whistle
and they stopped, stock still. The Colonel fired and brought the
big buck to the ground. The other, which was a small one, started
to run, but I sent a bullet after it that made more venison.
We now had plenty of meat, and the Colonel was as proud over
killing that deer as I was over my first pair of boots.
We stopped here until the command came up, dressed the venison and
went on our way rejoicing.
Soon we were ascending the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and about
three o'clock we struck the snow-line.
To one who has never gone from comparative summer in a few hours'
ride, to the depths of winter and a considerable depth of snow,
the sensation is a strange one. Of course, I had often done that
before. But having more leisure to think of it now, and having
more to do with the snow, I thought of its strangeness, and I am
reminded of a little girl whom I have become acquainted with long
since those days, and the effect that the first sight of snow had
upon her. She was born in San Francisco, and had not seen any snow
up to the time when she was three years old. Her parents were
coming east with her on a railroad train, which runs over about
the same ground that we were on at the time I was there with Col.
Elliott. Awakening in the morning in a sleeping-car on top of the
Sierras, the little one looked out, and seeing the vast fields of
whiteness, she exclaimed: "Do look, mamma; the world is covered
with sugar."
As we ascended the mountains the snow became so deep in a little
while that we were forced to camp. The next morning the herders
were directed to take the stock ahead in order to tramp down the
snow to make a trail, but in four miles it became so deep that it
was impossible to proceed further in that manner, and then the
Colonel detailed fifty men to shovel snow, but having only a few
shovels, wooden ones were made that answered the purpose, and
while we were shoveling, the horses were also frequently driven
back and forth over the trail, and in three days we had a passable
road for the wagons.
At the end of the three days we reached the edge of the snow on
the opposite side of the mountains, and there being a beautiful
camping ground and the first night out of the snow for some time,
the luxury of it was fully appreciated by all hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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