The History of the Old American West – 4 Books in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Emerson Hough
a grizzly bear, forcing him to half walk and half slide at the end of the ropes. Such a bit of wild life would offer excitement sufficient for any man, it would seem, and if any man would be fit for it, then surely would be the hardy and daring cowboy. No feat better than this could show the courage of the man and of the horse which he so perfectly controlled.
One of the great pests of the cattle range was the wolves, which annually inflicted a great loss upon the young stock, and against which an incessant war was waged by the whole ranch force, this more especially applying to the great gray wolf known as the timber wolf, buffalo wolf, "loper," "loafer," or "lobo" wolf, an animal quite large enough to pull down a yearling or a heifer with the help of not more than one or two of its kind. So great were the ravages of these animals after the buffalo had disappeared and left them no prey but the domestic cattle, that regular campaigns were made against them by a class of men called wolfers, who made an occupation of hunting, trapping, and poisoning them, more especially for the bounty money offered by nearly all the States of the cattle range. It was not possible, however, for the most energetic wolfing operations to clear the range of these pests, for they would drift in again from great distances; so the cowboy throughout the year had more or less opportunity of seeing wolves. Perhaps no wild animal might better be called his staple source of sport. A great many ranches kept good packs of hounds, usually very large and powerful greyhounds, with a few rough-coated staghounds or deerhounds, for the purpose of hunting wolves, and no better sport was offered in the cattle country than this coursing wolves with hounds. The cowboys kept the pack in good hard condition, for the excitement of the horseback running, the mad flight of the long chase, and the ensuing bitter fight at the close when a big "gray" was "stood up," made a sort of thing exactly to the cowboy fancy. In this way a great many wolf pelts found their way to the walls of the ranch house.
One remembers very well a wolf chase with a ranch pack which had killed many grays. The ranchman, riding out over the range early in the morning, saw a heifer pursued by a pair of big wolves, which pulled her down in a little valley. The ranchman rode back to the ranch at full speed and called out the dogs, all the men, of course, piling out and getting into saddle as soon as the nature of the excitement was known. "Wild enough was the scene, as the entire force of the ranch, some seventeen dogs and a dozen men, strung out at speed across the country, each man riding at top speed and the dogs bounding up at the horsemen and running eagerly about, as though beseeching that they be shown their game. The kill was at a distance of some three miles from the house, and it happened that the wolves were approached at their feeding within a quarter of a mile before they took alarm. The dogs sighted them well, and at once shot forward with their inimitable burst of speed. The wolves, already heavy with feed, could not travel at their best, and soon one of them, the larger, was reached by the head dog, a great blue hound that had killed many wolves in the numerous fights of his eventful life. This dog seized the wolf by the side of the neck and rolled it over in its stride. The wolf rose just in time to be caught upon the other side of the neck by the second hound, a powerful red fellow, also of great experience. It is very likely these two dogs would have eventually killed the wolf, large as it was, for finally one or other of them would have shifted and gotten the fatal grip on the throat for which they were both manoeuvring, and which neither would have released until the wolf was dead, though possibly both would have been badly cut up before this conclusion was reached. As it was, the wolf was so very large (its skin was six feet six inches in length) that it got to its feet and was actually dragging both dogs along with it as they clung to its neck, trying all the time viciously to get its teeth upon them, which their skill in seizing prevented it from doing. Seeing that the dogs could not kill without breaking their hold, and disliking to have such valuable hounds cut up by the wolf, as would be the case if it got its jaws free for a moment, the rancher at length rode up and broke the back of the wolf with a pistol shot, so that it was soon killed by the dogs. The cowboys all loudly expressed their dissatisfaction at the shooting of the wolf, for they had all the confidence in the world in their pack, which they always allowed to do their own killing in their frequent runs. In this case the second wolf escaped from the other dogs, which had no dog among their number large and courageous enough to seize and stop a gray. The latter is a tremendous fighter and an ugly customer, so that the ranch pack usually has a war-worn aspect, nearly all the dogs being covered with scars received in fights with wolves or coyotes. The coyotes are run into and killed by good hounds without much trouble. For this wild wolf coursing the cowboys usually preferred heavy greyhounds, though at times there were good wolf dogs among the rough staghounds.
It is sometimes said that the antelope can not be taken by any greyhound, and this is practically true in regard to the single greyhound, though even then with exceptions. A pack of good greyhounds can certainly kill antelope, for the writer has known eleven antelope to be killed in one week by a pack of greyhounds. In certain parts of the country, too, the white-tailed deer offers sport to the ranch pack, or at least did at one time, though perhaps now it would be difficult to find country where the deer could be successfully coursed with hounds. In the Indian Nations the writer has been out with a pack of greyhounds, which included a good pack of ranch dogs, when three deer were killed by the hounds in one day. It was very intense sport, and none enjoyed it better or were more adept at it than the cowboys, who were sure to be in at the death if that were among the possibilities. The fleet and hardy cow horse is never seen to better advantage than in this rapid and headlong rush across country after so swift an animal as the deer, and few riders but the cowboys could manage to keep in view of so impetuous a chase. The deer can outrun the horse on a straight course, to be sure, but if it double or swerve, as it is sure to do if pressed by the dogs, it is very likely that the cow-puncher and his horse will be near it at the turns. Then it is that the cowpuncher yells and spurs and rides his best, his kerchief flying straight on the wind, his hat front sitting back firm against his forehead under the impact of the air. In such riding one can see some of the finest horsemanship of the world, and certainly some of the most reckless.
The mountain lion is another animal in disrepute upon the cow range, because of its fondness for young calves or colts, but the range and the numbers of these animals was always so restricted that they cut less figure than the wolves in the annual estimate of losses in ranch work. Still, it was not unusual, more especially upon the southern range, where this animal ranged farther out into the open country, to see one of these great red cats stealing off across the plains in its attempt to get away unnoticed. The cowboy knew perfectly well that a more arrant coward never lived than this big, hulking cat, and he had for it a contempt that not all the panther stories of the Sunday newspapers, had he ever seen such a thing as a Sunday newspaper, could have mitigated. No matter whether alone or in company, as soon as he saw the "lion," he made after him at full speed. The cat ran away with incredible great leapings, showing a good turn of speed for a time; but the savage little cow horse, which enjoyed such a chase as much as did its rider, was sure to soon lay the cowboy well alongside if the country was open enough for a little running. The cat looked back over its shoulder, spitting viciously, but not turning to fight, and in reality scared fairly to its wits' end. The hissing rope soon clinched it, and then, no matter whether the noose fell on paw or neck or body, the little cow horse quickly dragged the panther to death. Wild enough sport, too, was such a chase as this?
The cow range did not often or not long offer any great amount of fur-bearing animals. The wolf, the coyote, the foxes and swifts, the antelope and deer, were the animals most frequently seen by the cowboy in his rounds. In the early days, or even yet, the ranch might be on a bit of good fur country, but if the cowboy found a beaver stream he was more apt to tell some trapper than to trouble his own head about the beaver harvest. At times on the cold northern range the cowboy bethought him of a fur cap for the winter days, and if an otter came in on some stream near the ranch and showed sign of staying about some creek or spring hole for a time, one of the cowboys might undertake to get his hide. It takes a good trapper to catch an otter, and the cowboy was not always a good trapper. But sometimes he would take his rifle and lie at some air hole through the ice where the otter came up to breathe, and wait there for a shot at his game, which he occasionally got. Once in a while the cowboy might go out for a look after some smaller fur-bearing animal, and he was always ready to join any hunting party made up at the ranch for a day or night hunt after wildcats, "leopard cats," lions, or other sort of game which his country might happen to produce; but left to himself, the cowboy was not always an ardent hunter, especially when