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About Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 1908)
ROGUE RIVER COURIER, GRANTS PAS3, OREGON, OCTOBER 23, 1908. HUNTING TH BLACK-TAILED DEER Br THEODORE ROOSEVELT P w. Bill JJ J- T .aGJiiatfJ I'are.l to the wl (Copyright, tsf, by Q. P. Putnnm'a Sana, i'uljllshpil under arrangement with O. P. Putnam Buna, New York and London. II C lilack tull's great curl OBliy Is ouo of tlio (IIhuiI vn ii ta inn under which It In ltr. in tltt tierce Htrtitf nee, coin- hlte-tuil. The hitter, when atitr- tled, iloeH not often toi to look round: but the former will KiMiernlly do so. The 11 rut bliick-tull I ever killed wax obtained owlii Holcly to this h cullarlty. I hud been rlillns up ulong the side of a branny coiillo, when a flue buck started out some thirty yards abend. Although so close, my first shut, a running one, was a ruins: when a couple of hundred yards off, on the very crest of the spur up which be bad run, he stopped und turned partially round. Firing agnlu from a rest, the bullet broke bis bind leg far up and went Into bis body. Off be went on three lefts, and I after bliu as fust as the horoe could Kullop. He went over the spur and down Into the valley of the creek from which tho coulle branched up. In very bud ground. lly pony was neither Cant nor sure footed, but of course In half a mile lit (topped and turned, overhauled the three legged deer, which turned short off and over the side of tho bill flanking the valley. Instead of running right up on It 1 foolishly dismounted and began tiring; after the first shot a miss It got be hind a boulder hitherto unseen, and thence over the crest The pony meanwhile had slipped Its bind leg Into the rein; when, after some time. I got It out and gnlloped up to the ridge, the most careful scrutiny of which tuy practised eyes were capa ble failed to discover a track on the dry ground, hard as granite. A day or two afterward the place where the carcass lay wus made known by the vultures, gnthered together from all parts to feed upon It. When fired at from a place of bid ing, deer which have not been accus tomed to the report of a gun will often appear confused and uncertain what to do. Ou one occasion, while hunting In the mountains, 1 saw an old buck with remarkably large horns, of curi ous and beautiful shape, more sym metrical than in most Instances where the normal form la departed from. The deer was feedlug In a wide, gently sloping valley, containing no cover from behind which to approach blm. We were In no need of tuout, but the antlers were so flue that I felt they jUMtllled the death of their bearer. After a little patient waiting, tho buck walked out of the valley, aud over the ridge ou the other side, moving up wind; I raced after ulm, aud crept up behind a thick growth of stunted ce dars, which had started up from mnng some boulders. The deer wss bout a hundred yards off. down In the volley. Out of breath, and over confident, flrrd hastily, overshooting him, The wind blew the smoke back way from the ridge, so that bo saw nothing, while the echo prevented hU placing the sound. He took couple of Jumps nearer, when he stood still and was again overshot. Again he took few Jumps, and the third shot weut below him; and the fourth Just behlud htm. This was too much, and away he went. In despair 1 knelt down tl had been flrlug offuaudl. took a steady aim well forward on his body, and tired, bringing him down, j but with small credit to the shot, for ! the bullt hud gone Into his hip, para lysing bis hlud-iiuarters. The autlera , re the finest pair I ever gut, aud form magnificent ornament for the hall: but tlie shooting is IninllT to be re called with plciimuv. Still, though certainly very bad, It was not quite as uiaU'euitnuie u ise mere target' suot would think. I bare seen many a crack marksman tt the target do quite as bad missing when out In the field, and that not once, but again and again. I have never made big bags myself, for I rarely hunt except for a fine beud or when we need meat, and if It can be voided do not shoot at fawns or does: so the greatest number I have ever killed In a day was three. This was late one November, on an occasion when our larder was running low. My foreman and I, upon discovering this fact, determined to make a trip next day back In the broken country, away from the river. We breakfasted hours before sunrise, and then mounted our horses and rode up the river bottom. The bright prairie moon was at the full, and was sunk In the west till It bung like a globe of white fire over the long row of Jagged bluffs that rose from across the river, while Its beams brought into fantustlc relief the peaks and crests of the buttes upon our left The valley of the river Itself was In partial darkness, and the stiff, twisted branches of the sage brush seemed to take on uncanny shaie as they stood In the hollows. The cold was stinging, and we let our willing horses gallop with loose reins, their hoofs ringing on the frozen ground. After going up a mile or two long tho course of the river we turned off to follow the bed Of a large dry creek. At Its mouth was a great space of ground much cut up by the hoofs of the cattle, which was In summer over flowed and almost a morass; but now the frost-bound earth was like wrin kled Iron beneath the horses' feet. Bo bind us the westerning moon sank down out of sight; and with no light but that of the stars, we let our horses thread their own way up the creek bot tom. When we had gone couple of miles from the river the sky In front of our faces took on a faint grayish tinge, the forerunner of dawn. All In the valley was yet dark when we reached the place where the creek be gan to split up and branch out Into the various arms and ravines from which It headed. We galloped smartly over the divide Into a set of coulles and valleys which ran Into a different creek, and selected grassy place where there was good feed to leave the horses. My compaulon picketed his: Manltou needed no picketing. The tops of the hills were growing rosy, but the sun was not yet above the horizon when we started off, with our rifles on our shoulders, walking It) cautious silence, for we were lu good ground and might at any mo ment see a deer. Above us was a plateau of some size, breaking off sharply at the rim iuto a surrouudlng stretch of very rough and rugged coun try. It sent off low spun with notch ed crests Into the valleys round about and Its edges were Indented with steep ravines and half circular basins, tbelr sides covered with clusters of gnarled and wind-beaten cedars, often gathered Into groves of some size. The ground was so broken as to give excellent cover under which a man could ap proach game unseen. At last. Just as the sun had risen, we came out by the mouth of a deep ravine or hollow cut lu the flank of the plntean, with steep, cediir-clud sides; and on the crest of a Jutting spur net more than thirty yards from where I stood, was a black-tall doe, half facing me. I waa in the shadow. and for a moment she could not make me out, aud stood motionless with her head turned toward me and her great ears thrown forward. Dropping ou my knee, I held the rltle a little back of her shoulder too far back, as It proved, ss she stood quartering and not broadside to me. No fairer chance could ever fall to the lot of a hunter; but to my Intense chagrin, she bound ed off at the report as If unhurt disappearing Instantly. My compan ion had now come up, and we ran up a rise of ground, and crouched down beside a great block of sandstone. In a position from which we overlooked the whole ravine or hollow. After some minutes of quiet watchfulness, we heard a twig snap the air was so still we could hear anything some rods up the ravine, Imt below us; and Im mediately afterward a buck stole out of the cedars. Both of us flred at once, aud with a convulsive spring he rolled over backwnrd, one bullet hav lin: gone through his nock, and the other-probably mine-having broken a bind leg. Immediately afterward, another buck broke from the upper chIko of the cover, near the top of the plateau, and, though I took hurried hot at him, bouuded over the crest, and was lost to sight We now determined to go down Into the ravine and look for the doe, and as there was a pxxl deal of snow In the bottom and under the trees, we knew we could soon tell If she were wound ed. Afler a little search we found her track, and walking along It a few yards, ciiuie upon some drops aud then a splash of bio.! There tMng no n. ill to hurry, we first dressed the dead buck a fine, fat fellow, but with small misshapen horus-aud then took up the rrniTor tne wounnel ooe rrcre. however, I again committed an error, and paid too much heed to the trull and too little to the country round about: and while following It with my eyes down on the groind In a placs there It was faint the doe got op lome distance ahead and to one side it me, and bounded off round a corner f the ravine. The bed where she bad lain was not very bloody, but from the fact of her having stopped so soon. I was sure she was badly wounded. However, after she got out of the snow the ground was as hard as flint, and If was impossible to track her; the val ley soon took a turn, and branched Into a tangle of coulles and ravines. I deemed it probable that she would not go up bill, but would run down the course of the main valley; but as It was so uncertain, we thought It would pay us best to look for a new deer. Our luck, however, seemed very de-sorvedly-to have ended. We tramped on. as swiftly as was compatible with quiet for hour after hour; beating through the valleys against the wind, and crossing! the brushy heads of the ravines, sometimes close together, and sometimes keeping about a hundred yards apart, according to the nature of the ground. When we had searched all through the country round the head of the creek. Into which we had come down, we walked over to the next, and went over It with equal care and pa tience. The morning was now well advanced, and we had to change our method of hunting. It was no longer likely that we should find the deer feeding or In the open, and Instead we looked for places where they might be expected to bed. following any trails that led Into thick patches of brush or young trees, one of us then hunting through the patch while the other kept watch without. Doubtless we must have passed close to more than one deer, and doubtless others heard us nnd skulked off through the thick cover; but. although we saw plenty of signs, we saw neither hoof nor hair of living thing. We lunched at the foot of a great clay butte, where there was a bed of snow. After lunch we hunted until the shadows began to lengthen out, when we went back to our horses. The buck was packed behind good old Manltou, who can carry any amount of weight at a smart pace, and does not care at II If a strap breaks and be finds his losd dangling about his feet an event that reduces most horses to a state of frantic terror. As soon aa loaded we rode down the valley into which the doe had disappeared in the morning, one taking each side and looking Into every possible lurking place. The odds were all against our finding any trace of her; but a hunter soon learns that he must take advantage of every chance, however slight This time we were rewarded for our care; for after riding about a mile our attention was attracted by a white patch In a clump of low briars. On getting off and look ing lu it proved to be the .white rump of the doe. which lay stretched out Inside, stark and stiff. The ball had gone In too far aft and had come ont on the opposite side near her hip, mak ing a mortal wound, but one which al lowed her to run over a mile before dying. It was little more than an ac cident that we In the end got ber; and my so nearly missing at such short bounds, and I knew be would not go far; nor did he. but stopped short swaved unsteadily about, and went over on his side. dead, the bullet clean through bis body. FALL WORK OF PLOWING AND PLANTING BEGUN Fall plowing baa commenced in earnest and the farmers of this seo tion are therefore bosily engaged and have teeu ever since the welcome rains of last wetk which put the ground In good shape to work. For the next month plowing and sowing the eed lor next year's grain crop will be the order of things on most of nnr farms. On anite a few places a great deal of garden truck will be pot in this fall though probawy raosi farmers will await the coming of spring for this sort of work. On many of the newer places the ax, the saw aud the stump puller are busy and as IVt as the wood is ramoved the ground made ready to receive fruit trees and urapes. Between now and spring hundreds acres of land which have heretofore been covered with timber and brosh will be planted to annles. Dears, peaches, cherries, and other fruits to aay nothing of grapes and berries of all kinds for which this ; portion or ne nogue River Vallev is famous. The prog- re's which will be made in trans- forming waste lands to orchards and lnvrds onrlns the next six months will undoubtedly equal or exceed all the work heretofore done In tuts line in the valley. "E. 0. DeW'itt & Co., Chicago. Ill Gentlemen In 1897 I bad a disease of the stomach and bowels. In the spring of 1S03 I bought a bottle of Kodol and the 'benefit I received all the gold in Georgia could not boy. May you live" long aud irospr. Youra very truly, C.N. Cornell Bod ing, Ga Ang. 27. 1906." 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I was off Manltou's back In au Instant The buck was moving slowly, and was evidently soon going to stop nnd took round, so I dropped on one knee, with my rifle half raised, snd waited. When about sixty yards off he halted and turned sideways to ine, offering a beautiful broadside shot. I alme,l at the spot Just behind the shoul der nnd felt 1 had him. At the report he weut off, but with short weak New Parcel Post Arrangement. Parcels post arrangements have been made between the United States and nearly all the foreign coantries, and in accordwoe therewith, persons de siring to send parcels by mail can do so. The rate and Ue of packages whioh can be sent to the various countries differ somewhat but the average weight of parcels which can be sent is 11 pounds and the avsrage cost 13 cents per (.ootid. Anyone wishing to avail themselves of the arrangements can get all the informa tion by applying at the postoffice. jriamberlaln'a Cough Remedy thr Most Popular Because it is the Best. 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This tour differs radically from any previous automobile run in that practically every car was operated by its owner instead of a professional driver, thus demonstrating simplicity and ease of operation, and proving forcibly that the Tourist is an owner'i car so simple in operation and mechanism as to enable the novice to negotiate the severest test to which an automobile could be put. This more-than-a-thousand-mile-run was successfully accomplished without mishap or accident, and will live long in the annals of automobiledom as a glowing testimonial to mechanical genius and constructional ability. The Typa "K" Touring Car, that powerful, ttnrdy "TT enera fiaoi wnicn caraea ucn as ennafjle reputation ilia put lew yean, a two-cylinder car of mnaikabai ability. lu coubuctioa it ike very acm of aunplicity, and lb acromputhmeou ban tamed (at iti mtkni world-wide reoowm. Tku ear. beaubfulljr finished in t choice of foot colon 22 H. P. fi-pauer(ef teraorabW tonneau, it $1300 al Loa Angela. 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