Wild Life in the Far West: Being the Personal Adventures of a Border Mountain Man. Captain James Hobbs
out nearly four years before. It surprised me that the party had changed so little; in fact the principal men were all here at the fort or out on a hunt and would soon be with us. Trapping for beaver and hunting game, &c, was the chief occupation of these traders and fur dealers whose head-quarters were at Bent's Fort. About one hundred trappers were in the employ of Bent and his partners, and sometimes one half the company were off on the hunt; sometimes more; leaving a small force at the fort for its protec- tion, though a military company was constantly sta- tioned there with a small battery, which was consid- ered sufficient for its defense.
When a company of trappers returned to the fort from a successful hunting trip, they were very jubi- lant and usually staid at the fort playing cards, drink- ing whisky and carousing, till a new party would organize and start off on another tramp, to be gone for several months, perhaps.
I staid at the fort some three months and then went out trapping under the lead of Kit Carson, with Peg- leg Smith, Spiebuck, Shawnee Jake, and other Shaw- nees, with some hunters I had not seen before; in all the party numbered forty or fifty.
Our destination was Picket Ware at the foot of Taos Mountain, ninety or a hundred miles from Bent's
52 TRAPPING.
Fort. In the region about "Picket Ware" and along Beaver creek we trapped and hunted four months. Altogether we captured over five hundred beaver and put up a great deal of bear bacon and bear' soil.
Spiebuck and Shawnee Jake, with myself, were the principal hunters for meat. Out hunting one evening, between sundown and dark, I wounded an elk. Being so dark I could not see my rifle-sights clearly, I shot it too far back. It was so late I let it run and return- ed to camp. It ran up a ravine which opened out a mile and a half from camp. Knowing that a wounded elk invariably takes to the water and stays by it till he dies, I was satisfied that I should find my game in the morning near one of the sloughs or small pools of water scattered through the ravine. On my return to camp I enjoyed a luscious supper of Shawnee cooking, being a mixture of turkey, grizzly bear, beaver tails, and buffalo, all cooked together in the same pot. I may as well say here that bread forms no part of an Indian' s diet, and in my four years of captivity I had lived on meat altogether, and had lost my appetite for bread.
Perhaps the reader may never have heard of such a dish as beaver tails; but I consider them the best meat that I ever fed on, when properly cooked. After supper, while lying around on our buffalo robes, smoking, I told my companions that I had wounded a splendid elk, close by, which I assured them I should be able to bring into camp the next morning. I also told them that grizzly bears were very thick in that part of the country, and we stood a good chance of finding one by the elk in the morning.
I had a friend in camp, named John Mclntire, who proposed to go with me. I accepted his proposition,
MclNTIRE AND THE GRIZZLY. 53
though. I had some doubts as to his fitness for a bear hunt, for he was perfectly green. I cautioned him of the danger in hunting grizzlies, but he had no fears, and insisted on going with me.
The next morning I buckled on my tomahawk and hunting-knife, took my gun and dog, and accompa- nied by Mclntire, I started to see about the elk. On arriving at the ravine I instructed my friend to cross over to the opposite side and climb the hill, but by no means to go into the hollow, as the grizzlies were dan- gerous when they got a man on the down-hill side. I went directly to where I presumed the elk would be found, if he had died by the water-side, and as soon as I approached within a short distance I saw that a large grizzly bear had scented my elk and was mak- ing his breakfast out of him.
He was in thick, scrubby oak brush, and I made my dog lie down while I crawled behind a rock to get a favorable shot at the animal. I shot him but he only snapped at the wound made by the bullet and started tearing through the brush, biting furiously at the bushes as he went. I reloaded my rifle as rapidly as possible to get in a second shot, but to my surprise I saw the bear rushing down the hollow, chasing after Mclntire who was only about ten steps in advance of the beast, and he was running for dear life, and making as much noise as a mad bull. The truth is Mclntire was scared and I hastened to the rescue, first sending my dog forward to help him.
Just as the dog reached the bear Mclntire darted behind a tree and flung his hat in the bear's face, at the same time pointing his gun at him. Old grizzly seized the muzzle of the gun in his teeth and as it was loaded and cocked it went off either accidentally or
54 FURS AND MEAT SENT TO BENT'S FORT.
otherwise and blew the bear's head open, just as the dog fastened on his hind quarters. I ran to the assist- ance of my friend with all haste, but he was out of danger, and had sat down several rods away with his face as white as a sheet and as badly frightened a man as I ever met. I commenced laughing and he became indignant, saying it was no laughing matter; and I never got Mclntire out on any more bear hunts. He would cook or do any thing, but said he never in- tended to make a business of bear hunting. He had only wished for one adventure, and this one had perfectly satisfied him.
After Mclntire had recovered from his fright and bewilderment, I told him to go to the camp and bring me the pack mules while I skinned and cut up my bear and elk. He returned shortly with four of the strongest pack mules there were in camp, and several. Mexican packers. The bear being extraordinarily large, weighing probably one thousand pounds, and the elk of average size, they made a good load for each mule; and when we returned to camp all hands were collected to enjoy a hearty supper.
The adventure I had with Mclntire was too good to keep, so I explained to Carson and the rest of the company what a narrow escape and terrible fright Mclntire had, and they laughed at him so much that he declared he had no intention of hunting grizzly bears in future.
Beaver and game now began to get scarce and we were ready to move again. We concluded to send twenty loads of furs and meat to Bent's Fort in charge of our packers. The Shawnee, Spiebuck, said lie had been out and found a place where there was a plenty of game and lots of beaver, &c. It was at a
FIRST LESSONS IN BUFFALO-HUNTING. 55
place called Bald Buttes, about thirty miles north of us. We started off our pack train for the fort, giving them directions where to find us on their return. We arrived at Bald Buttes the second day after, and found it an excellent hunting ground for buffalo and trapping beaver, as Spiebuck had told us.
We had a green Irishman, named O'Neil, who was quite anxious to become proficient in hunting and it wasn't long before he got his first lesson. We in- structed him that every man who went out of camp after game was expected to bring in meat of some kind. O'Neil said he would agree to the terms and was ready to start out that evening. He picked up his rifle and started for a small herd of mountain buffalo in plain sight, only three or four hundred yards from camp.
We were all busy fixing up our new camp, some of us putting up tents and some cooking supper, when we heard Mr. O'Neil' s rifle in the distance, and shortly after the gentleman came running into camp, bare- headed, without his gun, with a bull buffalo close after him, both going at full speed, and O'Neil shout- ing like a madman,
"Here we come, be Jasus. Stop us! For the love of God, stop us !"
Just as they came in among the tents, the bull not more than six feet in rear of the Irishman, who was frightened out of his wits and puffing like a loco- motive, his toe caught in a tent-rope and over he went into a puddle of water, head foremost and in his fall capsized several camp-kettles, one of which contained our supper. But the buffalo did not escape so easily, for Shawnee Jake and I jumped for our guns and dropped the animal before he had done any further damage.
56 INTERESTING CAPTURE.
We all laughed heartily at O'Neil when he had got up out of the water, for a party of trappers show no mercy to one who meets with a mishap of this kind; but as lie stood there with dripping