OCELOTS HUNTING IN COUPLES. [[p. 243.]
I crept down the stream, and had got within shot, when I made a forward leap in order to reach a rather thick bush, from which I could fire more conveniently. At the same instant the deer started apart in terror, and I saw that an ocelot had leaped on the back of one of them, which laid back its broad antlers and galloped down the stream, while a second cat followed it with long high bounds. Two of the terrified deer darted past me, but I did not fire, as I felt an interest in watching the hunt of the two beasts of prey, which I followed as quickly as I could out of the valley. The deer ran about a mile down the stream, then reared and fell over backwards, when the second cat also sprang on it, and hung on its neck.
The deer collected its last strength and tried to rise on its hind legs, but sank exhausted and sent its plaintive cries echoing through the mountains. I crept, unseen by the beasts of prey, within thirty yards of the scene of battle, and shot the first, while I missed the second, as it bolted, but sent Trusty after it, and soon heard him at bay lower down the stream. I soon reloaded and hurried after Trusty, who was barking round a small oak in which the ocelot had sought shelter. I shot it down and dragged it up to the other, which was lying by the dead deer. All were up in our camp, as they had heard my shots, and John and Königstein hurried toward me to see what I had killed. My clothes were as wet as if I had been in the river, and I turned myself before our fire while the others went out with Jack to bring in the game. Higher north I did not come across these small leopards, while farther south they are very frequent.
For several days longer our road ran through mountains, which were bordered by savage precipices and crossed by grassy valleys; then we rode for some days across open, boundless prairies, and again reached low ranges of hills, between which we crossed the southern arm of Red River, which divides Texas from Arkansas and falls into the Mississippi in Arkansas, after flowing a distance of nearly one thousand miles. There it is of a dirty red, and muddy, and moves sluggishly between lofty poplars and planes which overshadow its flat banks, while the long gray grass hangs down from thence to the surface of the water and literally covers the trees. This moss hangs from every branch in creepers twenty feet long, and conceals the swampy soil in which those fearful monsters, the alligators, lie by thousands and await in their pestiferous lair the unhappy victims whom accident leads to them. Here and there a half-decayed blockhouse peeps out from under these weeping banners, and as everything there offers the picture of rapid desolation, you see in this house, where so many families have died out one after the other, the pale, yellow wasted faces of the new-comers peering out, like candidates for death, till it becomes too late to escape from this pestilential abode.
How perfectly different, however, the river appears here! Clear as crystal to the bottom, it dances from rock to rock; refreshes as it darts past the luxuriant ferns and the thousand-hued flowers with its waves, and displays to the visitor its living wealth, as well as the vegetable world on its bed, in the most brilliant hues. The purest, lightest breeze sports over its high banks and drives the diseases, which are the curse of South-Eastern America, out of the paradise which lies beneath the haughty cypresses, pecan nut-trees, planes, maples, and colossal oak-trees that border it. How is it possible that men can be terrified by the dangers of the West, and patiently expose themselves to a certain, slow, awful decay in those poisoned forests, where Death inexorably swings his scythe all the year round?
The Rocky Mountains now rose in the west, and glistened with their snowy peaks, while around us the plants announced spring by their bursting buds. We drew nearer to them, although in this way our route became far more fatiguing than farther eastward, where the wide prairies extend to the north. But Tiger employed this precaution in order to get out of the way of the great Indian hordes pursuing the buffalo, who do not find in these mountains sufficient food for their troops of horses and mules, and cannot hunt the buffaloes there so well as on the prairie. Hence our journey was continued more slowly; but at this season we could reckon on water, and the small valleys offered our few cattle abundance of food. The mountains constantly afforded us more game than we needed for our support, and we could approach it with greater ease than on the prairies.
We had been winding for some days through wildly romantic mountain gorges, and our eyes were involuntarily fixed on the distant reddish mountains which rose in the north toward the transparent sky. We had left many a charming valley, turbulent current, and precipice behind, when at about noon one day we were stopped by a deep ravine, through which noisily dashed one of those mountain torrents which escape from the snows of the Andes and make their long course through the valleys to the Gulf of Mexico. Here we could not think of riding through, for the precipices on either side were at least fifty feet deep, while the width of the cavern was several hundred paces. We rode up the ravine and got among such rocks and loose stones that we were forced to dismount, and with the greatest difficulty reached a plateau where the banks of the stream were not so tall and steep, and we were able to remount. A few flat rocks were scattered over the bank where we were, while the opposite one rose steeply, and was covered with thick scrub and low wood.
I was riding with Tiger ahead of our party when, on turning a rock, we saw a very plump bear leap from the bank through the shallow but foaming stream, and disappear in a coppice opposite. It was too quick to enable us to fire, and when we reached the spot where we first saw it, we found a large elk lying behind some thick prickly bushes, which was still warm, and hence must have been recently killed. One leg was torn up, but the rest was in good condition, and we halted to await our friends and put the game on the mules. When I was about to dismount, Tiger remarked that the bear would return to the elk in the evening, and as we should soon be obliged to camp, owing to the growing darkness, we could hunt it.
Our friends came up and we marched about a mile farther, where we found excellent grass in a gorge on the left of the river. We unsaddled, hobbled our cattle, and prepared supper, although it was rather early. The question then was who of us should go after the bear, and as all wished to do so we agreed that the dice should decide. The lot fell on myself, Clifton, and Königstein, and without delay we took our weapons and walked down the stream to the spot where the elk lay. We advanced cautiously, as the bear might already be at its quarry, and as we noticed nothing of it we selected our posts no great distance from the elk. I was at the centre, behind a large rock, Königstein lay on my right near the stream in the dry grass behind some bushes, and Clifton was on my left, covered by a fallen dead tree.
We had a good wind, and if the bear returned we should have it under our guns, and it would hardly be able to escape. We sat without moving: the sun sank behind the mountains and scarce illumined the heights, while around us the gloom was already gathering; there was not a breath of air, and only the buzzing and chirruping of insects and the rustling of the stream disturbed the silence. Trusty, who had hitherto been lying at my feet, raised his head, looked at the thicket opposite and then up to me. I shook my finger at him not to growl, which he quite understood, and thrust his head down on the ground. Directly after I heard a cracking in the thicket, which soon became more distinct. At length the bear burst out of the scrub and came down a small path to the stream. We had agreed not to fire until it reached the elk on this side. It stopped for a few minutes in the water to drink, then leapt from stone to stone up the bank, and walked slowly toward the elk. The bear had scarce reached the prickly bush ere we fired simultaneously, and it rolled over, but got up again and leapt into the water. Clifton and Königstein sent two bullets after it, which, however, did not seem to hurt it much, for it dashed ahead to the other bank. Königstein at once leapt, revolver in hand, into the stream after the bear, and was standing between it and me, when he put a bullet into its leg at a short distance. The bear, noticing its pursuer, turned and went toward him with a hoarse roar, while Königstein, still standing in the water, put a second bullet into its chest. I ran up and fired my rifle bullet into the left breast of the furious animal, while Clifton gave it another in the belly from his long pistol. The bear fell into the water but a few yards from Königstein, who, seeing it rise on its fore paws, shot it through the head with his revolver. Though the water was shallow, it was so rapid that it would have carried the bear away, so we both threw away our weapons, leapt into the stream to Königstein, and dragged the beast on land. Here we let it lie, reloaded, and returned to camp, where our comrades were, greatly pleased at the lucky result of our hunt. We waited till the moon had risen, then took two mules, and I proceeded with Tiger and John to our quarry, in order to fetch its skin and the best meat.