CHAPTER IV.
HUNTING ADVENTURES.
It is scarce possible to form an idea of the abundance of game with which the country near me was blessed in those days. It really seemed to be augmented with every year of my residence, for which I may account by the fact that the several vagabond hordes of Indians—who prefer the flesh of deer, antelopes, and turkey to that of buffaloes, whose enormous mass they cannot devour at once, while the smaller descriptions of game could be killed in the forests and coppices, without revealing themselves to the enemy on the wide prairie—that these Indians, I say, more or less avoided my neighbourhood, while, for my part, I had greatly reduced the number of wild beasts, especially of the larger sort. I consumed a great quantity of meat in my household, owing to the number of dogs I kept, but I really procured it as if only amusing myself. There were certainly days on which I shot nothing. At times I did not get sight of a buffalo for a week, or the prairie grass was burnt down to the roots, which rendered it extremely difficult to stalk the game, while just at this period, when the first green shoots spring up, the animals principally visit the open plains, whence they can see their pursuers for a long distance. For all that, though we had generally a superabundance of meat, and too often behaved with unpardonable extravagance, I have frequently killed five or six buffaloes, each weighing from a thousand to fifteen hundred pounds, in one chase, lasting perhaps half-an-hour, and then merely carried off their tongues and marrow-bones. Often, too, I have shot one or two bears, weighing from five to eight hundred pounds, and only taken home their paws and a few ribs, because the distance was too great to burden my horse with a large supply of meat. I could always supply our stock in the vicinity of my fort, although at times we were compelled to put up with turkeys, or fish and turtle, with which our river literally swarmed.
Bear-meat formed an important item in our larder—or, more correctly speaking, bear's-grease—which was of service in a great many ways. We employed it to fry our food, for which buffalo or deer fat was not so good; we used it to burn in our lamps, to rub all our leather with, and keep it supple; we drank it as a medicine—in a word, it answered a thousand demands in our small household. This is the sole fatty substance, an immoderate use of which does not turn the stomach or entail any serious consequences. The transport of this article, though, was at times rather difficult, especially on a warm day; as this fat easily becomes liquid, and will even melt in the hunter's hand while he is paunching a bear. This is chiefly the case with the stomach fat, which is the finest and best; that on the back and the rest of the body, which at the fatting season is a good six inches thick, is harder and requires to be melted over a slow fire before it can be used in lamps.
These animals were very numerous in my neighbourhood. In spring and summer they visited the woods, where with their cubs they regaled upon wild plums, grapes, honey, and young game of all sorts, and at times played the deuce in my maize-field. In autumn the rich crop of peca-nuts, walnuts, acorns, chestnuts, and similar fruits, kept them in our forests; and in winter they sought rocky ravines and caves, where they hybernated. Very many took up their quarters in old hollow trees, so that at this season I had hardly any difficulty in finding a bear in my neighbourhood. Trusty was a first-rate hand at this, for he found a track, and kept to it as long as I pleased; and at the same time possessed the great advantage that he never required a leash, never went farther than I ordered him, and never followed game without my permission. When a bear rose before me it rarely got fifty paces away, unless it was in thorny bushes, where the dog could not escape its attack; for, so soon as the bear bolted, Trusty dug his teeth so furiously into its legs, and slipped away with such agility, that the bear soon gave up all attempts at flight, and stood at bay. It was laughable to see the trouble the bear was in when I came up; how it danced round Trusty, and with the most ridiculous entrechats upbraided his impudence; while Trusty continually sprang away, lay down before Bruin, and made the woods ring with his bass voice. Frequently, however, the honest dog incurred great peril during this sport, and his life more than once depended on my opportune arrival.
In this way I followed one warm autumn day a remarkably broad bear trail on the mountains of the Rio Grande. Trusty halting fifty yards ahead of me, showed me that it stopped at a small torrent, where the bear had watered on the previous night. I dismounted, examined the trail carefully, and saw that it was made by a very old fat bear; it was in the fatting season, when the bear frequently interrupts its sleep and pays a nocturnal visit to the water. At this season these animals are very clumsy and slow, and cannot run far, as they soon grow scant of breath; they soon stop, and can be easily killed by the hunter—always supposing that he can trust to his dog and horse, for any mistake might expose the rider to great danger. I ordered Trusty to follow the trail; it ran for some distance up the ravine, then went up the bare hill-side, which was covered with loose boulders and large masses of rock, into the valley on the opposite side, in the middle of which was a broad but very swampy pool, girdled by thick thorny bushes. Trusty halted in front of this thicket, looked round to me, and then again at the bushes, while wagging his long tail. I knew the meaning of this signal, and that the bear was not far off. I ordered the dog on, and drew a revolver from my belt; feeling assured that the bear would soon leave the underwood and seek safety in flight. Trusty disappeared in the bushes, and his powerful bark soon resounded through the narrow valley. It was an impossibility for me to ride through the thicket, hence I galloped to the end of the coppice, and saw there the bear going at a rapid pace up the opposite steep hill, with Trusty close at its heels. I tried to cross the swamp, but Czar retreated with a snort, as if to show me the danger of the enterprise. By this time Trusty had caught up to the bear at the top of the hill, and furiously attacked it in the rear. The bear darted round with extraordinary agility, and was within an ace of seizing Trusty, but after making a few springs at the dog, it continued its hurried flight, and disappeared with Trusty over the hill-top. I had ridden farther up the water when I heard my dog baying; I drove the spurs into my horse, and with one immense leap, we were both in the middle of the swamp up to the girths; then, with an indescribable effort, Czar gave three tremendous leaps, which sent black mud flying round us, and reached the opposite firm ground with his fore feet, while his hind quarters sunk in the quivering morass; with one spring I was over his head, when I sank in up to the knees, and after several tremendous exertions, the noble fellow sprang ashore, trembling all over. Trusty's barking, as if for help, continually reached me as I galloped up the steep hill-side; I arrived on the summit at the moment when the bear sprang at Trusty, and buried him beneath its enormous weight. My alarm for the faithful dog—my best friend in these solitudes, made me urge Czar on; he bounded like a cat over the remaining rocks, and I saw Trusty slip out from under the bear in some miraculous way, and attack it again on the flank. I halted about ten paces from the scene of action, held my rifle between the little red fiery eyes of the bright black monster, and laid it lifeless on the bare rocks. The greatest peril for dogs is at the moment when the bear is shot, for they are apt to attack it as it falls, and get crushed in its last convulsive throes. I leapt off Czar, who was greatly excited by the sharp ride, went up to Trusty, who was venting his fury on Bruin's throat, examined him, and found that he had received three very serious wounds, two on the back and one over the left shoulderblade, which were bleeding profusely, though in his fury he did not seem to notice them. I took my case from the holster and sewed up his wounds, during which operation he lay very patiently before me, and looked at me with his large eyes, as if asking whether this were necessary. Then I took off my jacket and set to work on the bear, stripped it, and put the hide as well as a hundred pounds' weight of the flesh on Czar's back. If my readers will bear in mind that the sun was shining on my back furiously, and that I was on a bare blazing rock, they will understand that I was worn out, and longed for a cool resting-place. The bear weighed at least 800 lbs., and it requires a great effort to turn such an animal over.