Hunting Trips on the Prairie and in the MountainsG.P. Putnam's Sons, 1885 - 238 pages |
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animal Anna Katharine Green antelope Bad Lands band bear beast big-horn Bighorn Mountains black-tail black-tail deer blue grouse bottom broken buck-board buffalo buffalo trails bull buttes camp cattle cliff climbing couple cowboys creek crest curb bit danger deer distance fawns feed feet fire foes follow foot G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS galloped grass grazing grizzly ground head herds hill horns horses hundred yards hunters hunting jump keep killed lariat latter ledges look lope melan Merrifield morning mountain mountain ram night once pine places plains plains game plateaus ponies prairie prairie-dog prong-horn ranch ranchman range ravine ridge riding rifle rode Rodrigues Ottolengui seen sharp sheep shoot shot side sight snow species sport steep struck thing tracks trail trees trip trotted turned valley wagon walked wary weather white-tail deer wind woods wounded
Popular passages
Page 120 - The country over which the huge herds grazed during the last year or two of their existence was cropped bare, and the grass did not grow to its normal height and become able to support cattle for, in some cases two, in others three, seasons. Every buffalo needed as much food as an ox or cow; and if the former abounded, the latter perforce would have to be scarce. Above all, the extermination of the buffalo was the only way of solving the Indian question. As long as this large animal of the chase...
Page 223 - ... us. It was the first I had ever seen, and I felt not a little proud, as I stood over the great brindled bulk which lay stretched out at length in the cool shade of the evergreens. He was a monstrous fellow, much larger than any I have seen since, whether alive or brought in dead by the hunters. As near as we could estimate (for of course wo had nothing with which to weigh more than very small portions), he must have weighed about twelve hundred pounds...
Page 39 - The ground is scorched to a dull brown, and against its monotonous expanse any objects stand out with a prominence that makes it difficult to judge of the distance at which they are. A mile off one can see, through the strange shimmering haze, the shadowy white outlines of something which looms vaguely up till it looks as large as the canvas-top of a prairie wagon ; but as the horseman comes nearer it shrinks and dwindles and takes clearer form, until at last it changes into the ghastly staring skull...
Page 223 - The whole thing was over in twenty seconds from the time I caught sight of the game ; indeed, it was over so quickly that the grizzly did not have time to show fight at all or come a step toward us. It was the first I had ever seen, and I felt not a little proud, as I stood over the great brindled bulk, which lay stretched out at length in the cool shade of the evergreens. He was a monstrous fellow, much larger than any I have seen since, whether alive or brought in dead by the hunters.
Page 222 - When in the middle of the thicket we crossed what was almost a breastwork of fallen logs, and Merrifield, who was leading, passed by the upright stem of a great pine. As soon as he was by it, he sank suddenly on one knee, turning half round, his face fairly aflame with excitement ; and as I strode past him, with my rifle at the ready, there, not ten steps off, was the great bear, slowly rising from his bed among the young spruces.
Page 218 - We climbed up along the trunk of a dead tree which had toppled over until its upper branches struck in the limb crotch of another, that thus supported it at an angle half-way in its fall. When above the ground far enough to prevent the bear's smelling us, we sat still to wait for his approach; until, in the gathering gloom, we could no longer see the sights of our rifles, and could but dimly make out the carcass of the great elk.