Chapter I: Front Matter

_IN THE FOREST OF CALIFORNIA_

_President Roosevelt and party, including Secretary Moody and Governor Pardee, after crossing the old trail of “The Wilderness Hunter”_]

THE WORKS OF

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

IN FOURTEEN VOLUMES

_Illustrated_

THE WILDERNESS HUNTER

Executive Edition

PUBLISHED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE PRESIDENT THROUGH SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH THE CENTURY CO., MESSRS. CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, AND G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

THE CO-OPERATIVE PUBLICATION SOCIETY

NEW YORK AND LONDON

COPYRIGHT 1889 BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

This edition is published under arrangement with G. P. Putnam’s Sons, of New York and London.

TO

E. K. R.

“They saw the silences
Move by and beckon; saw the forms,
The very beards, of burly storms,
And heard them talk like sounding seas....
They saw the snowy mountains rolled
And heaved along the nameless lands
Like mighty billows; saw the gold
Of awful sunsets; saw the blush
Of sudden dawn, and felt the hush
Of heaven when the day sat down
And hid his face in dusky hands.”

--_Joaquin Miller_

“In vain the speeding of shyness;
In vain the elk takes to the inner passes of the woods....
... where geese nip their food with short jerks,
Where sundown shadows lengthen over the limitless prairie,
Where herds of buffalo make a crawling spread of the square miles,
far and near,
Where winter wolves bark amid wastes of snow and ice-clad trees....
The moose, large as an ox, cornered by hunters, plunging with his
forefeet, the hoofs as sharp as knives.... The blazing fire at
night, the
sweet taste of supper, the talk, the bed of hemlock boughs, and the
bear-skin.”

--_Walt Whitman_

CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER I

THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS; WILDERNESS HUNTERS AND WILDERNESS GAME

The American Wilderness--Forests, Plains, Mountains--Likeness and Unlikeness to the Old-World Wilderness--Wilderness Hunters--Boone, Crockett, Houston, Carson--The Trappers--The Buffalo Hunters--The Stockmen--The Regular Army--Wilderness Game--Bison, Moose, Elk, Caribou, Deer, Antelope--Other Game--Hunting in the Wilderness

CHAPTER II

HUNTING FROM THE RANCH; THE BLACKTAIL DEER

In the Cattle Country--Life on a Ranch--A Round-up--Branding a Maverick--The Bad Lands--A Shot at a Blacktail--Still-hunting the Blacktail--Its Habits--Killing a Buck in August--A Shot at Close Range--Occasional Unwariness of Blacktail

CHAPTER III

THE WHITETAIL DEER; AND THE BLACKTAIL OF THE COLUMBIA

The Whitetail--Yields Poor Sport--Fire Hunting--Hunting with Hounds--Shooting at Running Game--Queer Adventure--Anecdotes of Plainsmen--Good and Bad Shots--A Wagon Trip--A Shot from the Ranch-house Veranda--The Columbian Blacktail

CHAPTER IV

ON THE CATTLE RANGES; THE PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE

Riding to the Round-up--The Open Plains--Sights and Sounds--Gophers, Prairie Dogs, Sharp-tail Grouse, Antelope--The Cow-camp--Standing Night Guard--Dawn--Make an Antelope Hunt--An Easy Stalk--A Difficult Stalk--Three Antelope Shot--The Plains Skylark--The Meadow-Lark--The Mocking-bird--Other Singers--Harsher Wilderness Sounds--Pack Rats--Plains Ferret, Its Ferocity--The War Eagle--Attacks Antelope--Kills Jack-Rabbit--One Shot on Wing with Rifle

CHAPTER V

HUNTING THE PRONG-BUCK; FROST, FIRE, AND THIRST

Hunting the Prong-Buck--Long Shots--Misses--Winter Weather--A Hunt in December--Riding in the Bitter Cold--The Old Hunter’s Tepee--A Night in a Line Camp--An Antelope Herd--Two Bucks Shot--Riding Back to Ranch--The Immigrant Train--Hunting in Fall--Fighting Fire--A Summer Hunt--Sufferings from Thirst--Swimming Cattle Across a Swollen Stream--Wagon Trip to the Black Hills--The Great Prairies--A Prong-buck Shot--Pleasant Camp--Buck Shot in Morning--Continue our Journey--Shooting Sage Fowl and Prairie Fowl with Rifle

CHAPTER VI

AMONG THE HIGH HILLS; THE BIGHORN OR MOUNTAIN SHEEP

A Summer on the Ranch--Working Among the Cattle--Killing Game for the Ranch--A Trip After Mountain Sheep--The Bad Lands--Solitary Camp--The Old Horse Manitou--Still-hunt at Dawn--Young Ram Shot--A Hunt in the Rocky Mountains--An Old Bighorn Stalked and Shot--Habits of the Game

CHAPTER VII

MOUNTAIN GAME; THE WHITE GOAT

A Trip to the Big Hole Basin--Incidents of Travel with a Wagon--Camp Among the Mountains--A Trip on Foot After Goats--Spruce Grouse--Lying Out at Night--A Climb over the High Peaks--Two Goats Shot--Weary Tramp Back--A Hunt in the Kootenai Country--Hard Climbing Among the Wooded Mountains--Goat Shot on Brink of Chasm--Ptarmigan for Supper--Goat Hunting Very Hard Work--Ways and Habits of the Goats--Not much Decrease in Numbers

CHAPTER VIII

HUNTING IN THE SELKIRKS; THE CARIBOU

A Camp on Kootenai Lake--Traveling on Foot Through the Dense Forests--Excessive Toil--Water Shrew and Water Thrush--Black Bear Killed--Mountain Climbing--Woodchucks and Conies--The Indian Ammál--Night Sounds--A Long Walk--A Caribou Killed--A Midwinter Trip on Snowshoes in Maine--Footprints on the Snow--A Helpless Deer--Caribou at Ease in the Deep Drifts

CHAPTER IX

THE WAPITI OR ROUND-HORNED ELK

A Hunt in the Bitter Root Mountains--A Trip on Foot--Two Bull Elk Fighting--The Peacemaker--All Three Shot--Habits of the Wapiti--Their Bugling--A Grand Chorus--Shooting a Bull at Sunrise--Another Killed near the Ranch--Vanishing of the Elk--Its Antlers--The Lynx--Porcupine--Chickarees and Chipmunks--Clark’s Crow--Lewis’ Woodpecker--Whiskey-jack--Trout--The Yellowstone Canyon

CHAPTER X

AN ELK-HUNT AT TWO-OCEAN PASS

In the Shoshones--Traveling with a Pack-train--Scenery--Flowers--A Squaw-man--Bull Elk Shot in Rain while Challenging--Storm--Breaking Camp in Rain--Two-Ocean Pass--Our Camp--A Young Ten-pointer Shot--The Mountains in Moonlight--Blue Grouse--Snowshoe Rabbits--Death of a Master Bull--The Tetons--Following a Bull by Scent--Ill Luck--Luck Changes--Death of Spike Bull--Three Bulls Killed--Traveling Home--Heavy Snowstorm--Bucking Horse--Various Hunts Compared--Number Cartridges Used--Still-hunting the Elk

CHAPTER XI

THE MOOSE; THE BEAST OF THE WOODLAND

The Moose of the Rocky Mountains--Its Habits--Difficult Nature of Its Haunts--Repeated Failures while Hunting It--Watching a Marsh at Dawn--A Moose in the Reeds--Stalking and Shooting Him--Traveling Light with a Pack-train--A Beaver Meadow--Shooting a Big Bull at Dawn--The Moose in Summer, in Winter--Young Moose--Pugnacity of Moose--Still-hunting Moose--Rather More Easy to Kill than Whitetail Deer--At Times a Dangerous Antagonist--The Winter Yards--Hunting on Snowshoes--A Narrow Escape--A Fatal Encounter

CHAPTER XII

HUNTING LORE

Game Which Ought Not to Be Killed--Killing Black Bear with a Knife--Sports with Rod and Shot-gun--Snowshoeing and Mountaineering--American Writers on Out-door Life--Burroughs--Thoreau--Audubon, Coues, etc.--American Hunting Books--American Writers on Life in the Wilderness: Parkman, Irving--Cooper on Pioneer Life--American Statesmen and Soldiers Devoted to the Chase--Lincoln, Jackson, Israel Putnam--A Letter from Webster on Trout-fishing--Clay--Washington--Hunting Extracts from Washington’s Diaries--Washington as a Fox-hunter

APPENDIX