A hunter's experiences in the Southern States of America : being an account of the natural history of the various quadrupeds and birds which are the objects of chase in those countries

Preface

Since my contributions began to appear in the columns of ' The Field,' under the nom de plume of ' The Eanger,' the frequent questions put to me by sportsmen in search of some region where they might have mild winter quarters, as well a abundance of game, have led me to think that a book on the Quadrupeds, Game-birds, Wild-fowl, and other objects of sport in the Southern States of (North) America, might be both useful and interesting.

Having hved for many years in the South, and having devoted most of my time to hunting, shooting, and fishing, I can treat of the subject from my own experience.

I have added an Appendix as a guide to the expenses of a trip, and to the haunts where each kind of beast and bird may be found.

LoNDOif, 1866.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. HINTS ON FOKEST AND PRAIRIE LIFE ... 1

II. THE BISON 34

CHAPTER I. HINTS ON FOREST iLND PRAIRIE LIFE

EVER since the days when Nimrod was a ^ mighty hunter,' there has been a class of men who have ^ J pursued wild animals, not only for the sake of feeding, like wild beasts, upon their flesh, but out of pure love of the excitement attending the chase, a pride of mental and physical endurance which leads them to face boldly dangers and difficulties so discouraging to men of weaker mould, that to incur such hazard seems to them mere madness. Amongst those who have thus gone forth into the wilderness, the Anglo-Saxon race stands pre-eminent.

Nor is it for the sake of excitement alone that they put their lives in peril. Wherever the cause of science or commerce requires that discoveries

B should be made, or geographical problems solved, we find the Englishman foremost ; venturing with his frail bark and his reindeer sled amongst the icebergs of a frozen ocean in search of a north-west passage ; laboriously tracing the Nile to its source, in unknown lands, amongst a fierce and savage people; braving the tropical heats and deadly miasmas of Central Africa ; or working their way across the arid deserts of Australia, to set up land-marks, and point the way to future discoverers.

And in every phase of their wandering life they are attentively watched by those who are unable to accompany them. Elderly, staid, respectable gentlemen, with a slight inclination to Toryism, may profess to think it rather low to go rambling about over a whole continent, subsisting on the produce of the chase, and bartering Birmingham goods with naked savages; but when the name of one of our travellers is mentioned they cannot help feeling a pride in him, and reflecting that the same country gave them birth. The old man who knows what the gout is, suffers a little from indigestion, and is slightly disposed to asthma, looks with a touch of envy upon the bronzed, healthy face and keen eye of the rover, and wishes that his own step was as firm and light. With a sigh he thinks upon his bankers' account, and the years of toil which

LOVE OF ADVENTURE. 3

have made him what he is ; and would willingly give a cheque for a very large amount could he, by so doing, assure himself of one-tenth part of his robust hardihood.

Wherever commerce has established itself, the children of almost every nation under the sun may be seen jostling and pushing each other in the pursuit of golden treasures; but where nothing but perilous adventures may be expected, it is rare to meet any but Englishmen, or at all events men of Anglo-Saxon parentage. And of that race many names could be mentioned of men who, for the mere sake of enjoying Nature in all her loveliness, have willingly abandoned home to rove at will far away from the comforts and restraints of civilization.

And where does Nature assume a more beautiful aspect than on the mighty American continent, where dense forests stretch away for leagues, bounded only by some broad river whose impetuous flood could engulf all the tiny streams of England ; while beyond, far as the eye can reach, and miles further, stretches a vast meadow of green, waving grass? Where can the hunter find game more worthy of his gun than in the wild woods and almost boundless prairies of the West; where the huge buffalo stalks in all his shaggy majesty ; where the deer and antelope bound, where the boar and bear roam about the

B 2 dense thickets, and game birds of large size and delicious flavour are as plentiful as blackbirds in England ? It is in pursuit of such game that many a wealthy Englishman has earned himself a name in sporting history, to the envy of young Nimrods, who would fain outvie the deeds of their more celebrated compeers.

Though my hair is not yet white with age, I can still say I was a young man when I first visited the prairies and woods of the West, where the best years of my life were passed, and I have often since regretted leaving those wild scenes ; though why I did so is a question I have never been able to solve to my own satisfaction. Perhaps it was the effect of that very desire for change which first led me to the wilderness.

Often in my dreams I wander over the prairies; often in my waking moments I recall happy times spent in the woods ; but now that I can no more take part in those inspiriting scenes, I cannot refrain •from recording my experiences by flood and field, for the benefit of all who may feel inclined to pay a visit to those game-filled regions, — the Paradise of the true sportsman, and the ' happy hunting-grounds ' of

the Indian warrior.

■f

In the prairies and forests of Texas, where I lived for years, a medium sportsman, with a good double-

SPORT IN TEXAS. 5

shot gun and a brace of pointers, can kill quail and grouse to his heart's content. In the winter, the swamps, lakes, and rivers swarm with almost every kind of wild fowl, ducks, geese, swans, and two or three varieties of cranes. Should he be of a more ambitious disposition, and wish to try his skill on game of a larger size, bears and peccaries are always to be found in the cane-brakes and thickets ; and if even this should fail to satisfy him, the great bison is to be found on the western prairies, where he can have adventures to his heart's content.

I once passed nearly a twelvemonth in the forest with no companions but my dogs, and no means of subsistence but the produce of my gun. My good thick blanket was my only bed, and a rude hut of branches piled and woven together, my home. It was only when powder and lead grew scarce that I returned to the settlements; and on once more reaching a spot where civilization had made some progress, I felt about as awkward as a Maori woman in a ball-room dress, and as fearful of doing wrong as a schoolboy may be on finding himself at his school gate after the holidays.

But no one need live this solitary hermit -like existence from choice, for in every little town it is easy enough to find two, three, or half-a-dozen comrades who desire no greater enjoyment than a month or two months of camp hunting ; and, with-

6 HINTS ON FOEEST AND PRAIRIE LIFE.

out the guidance of some tolerably experienced hunter, who knows a little of the country and of woodcraft, it would not be advisable for a novice to venture many miles away from the haunts of men. In all probability he would be lost in the forest ; and a man who has only seen forests, as they are called, in England, can form little idea of the extent and appearance of an American wilderness. Even the Hampshire New Forest, large in extent and diversified in appearance as it may seem to the eyes of a city-bred man, is but *a jpatch^ upon the woods of the Southern States of America. In some parts, the trees, the undergrowth, and huge weeds are so matted together with briars and vines, that the hunter is literally compelled to hew a passage through them for hundreds of yards ; while in other parts the trees stand as regularly, as far apart, as well trained, apparently, as in any English park, and as free from weeds and bushes. Sometimes, again, there are low flats the soil of which is as bare as a turnpike-road or a brick-field, while close by, and without any perceptible difference in the soil, is a tall growth of palmetto, sedge, and coarse grass. Further on may be seen a genuine cane-brake, where the reeds are of all sizes, from a crow-quill to a man's leg, and in height from three inches to thirty feet.

Cedar swamps are almost as impenetrable as the

AMERICAN FORESTS. 7

canes. The trees are, perhaps, not quite so close together, but many of them lie on the ground ; and then broken branches, concealed in a dense growth of rank grass, are ever ready, like so many iron spikes, to inflict wounds upon the intruder. On higher ground the wild peach-bush grows abundantly, and so thickly together that their tops shut out the light of heaven, and thus check all the undergrowth, though they spring to a sufficient height to allow the deer-stalker or still-hunter to exercise his calling with comparative freedom. In other thickets all the varied shrubs of America, hickory, dog-wood, thorn, grow close together, and present a most formidable array of sharp spikes.

Often, while wandering in the depths of the wilderness, the hunter will come upon some large, deep lake, whose placid waters will, in winter-time, reflect the floating form of thousands of wild fowl, and where (I am speaking only of the more southern of the United States, in which King Frost has no dominion) huge lilies float upon the mirror-like surface of the blue water. There, too, the wild beasts come to drink, — deer, hogs, panthers, and bears, — while wolves and wild cats hide in the thickets by the bank to seize the more weak and timid denizens of the wild, — themselves frequently becoming the prey of some alligator which lies like a huge log on the shore till food of some kind comes within his reach.

But the hunter's progress is often barred by impassable swamps, where vegetation runs riot and drops to decay ; where amongst the tangled ferns, rushes, and long grass, the moccasin snake crawls forth from his den, and hisses its defiance to the intruder ; where pools of stagnant water, covered with rank weeds, afford board and lodging to the toad; where the mass of vegetation breeds a vapour scarcely less poisonous than the noxious reptiles which it nourishes ; where, on the top of tall, blasted pine trees, vultures sit, with bloated crops and glazed, sleepy eyes, trying to digest their carrion food.

But let me speak of more pleasant scenes — of a bubbling spring at the foot of a mossy bank, beneath the shade of some ancient tree, where the hunter, as he reposes, can watch the silver thread of water as it winds down the valley, till it loses itself in some larger stream, not poisoned yet by a foul manufactory.

But I feel that it is impossible to give on paper any adequate idea of the vastness and variety of an American wilderness, — so different from English forest scenery, where woodmen are constantly employed to ' keep the place tidy, ' and withered branches are converted into faggots of fire-wood as soon as they fall. In the forests of Texas all is natural ; the trees are planted by Nature's hand ; they fall from decay or from the effects of a fierce tempest, — and where

AMERICAN FOREST SCENERY. 9

they fall they rot ; scarcely one in a thousand being used by the hunter for his camp fire.

The scenery, viewed from the surface of a river, exhibits an equal variety. The hunter is ascendingone of the rivers (say the Brazos), sees on one side a dense mass of forest, the depth of which may be measured by yards or miles. On the other side is a precipitous bluff bank ; and though the traveller cannot see up to the summit of it, he knows well enough that beyond it there is a wide, rolling expanse of prairie. Further on, the bauks become so low that they scarcely confine the waters, and then the hunter sails betwixt groves of tall canes and weeds, — the luxuriant vegetation of a marsh. After some little progress, green meadows, as level as a bowlingalley, are seen on both sides, while buffaloes and wild horses and deer graze contentedly upon the soft grass.

When the hunter, be he white or red, roams these solitudes by himself, his very loneliness compels him to strain his senses to the utmost ; and sometimes the exhibitions of keen intellect, displayed by the veterans of the forest, are surprising. The white hunter is, as a rule, far ahead of the Indian in that learning which the red-man formerly excelled in.

The extraordinary sagacity which many animals display in avoiding the snares of man, — the almost reasoning powers of the bee, the ant, the beaver, and the bear, sink into nothingness compared with the cultivated intelligence of the men who make it their business to go forth into the wilderness and take the most wary animals in their dens.

The sight of the practised hunter is so cultivated, as to rival in delicacy of perception the touch of the blind man. The contact of a passing object with the trees, grass, or solid earth, leaves some slight trail which, though imperceptible to the novice, can be read by the practised hunter as easily as the open page of a book. From such slight things as a broken twig, a bruised blade of grass, or a pebble that has been kicked from its bed in the softer earth, the learned in forest lore can not only tell what animal has crossed his path, but will be able to form a pretty correct estimate of the size and sex of the game, and the time that has elapsed since the ' sign ' from which he draws his knowledge was made.

In this lies the great difference between the hunter and the sportsman. The former trusts to his own unaided intelligence and forest experience to bring him to his game, which his rifle then secures. The latter employs the keen scent of his dogs to bring him to the quarry, confining himself to the killing portion of the business.

The hasty stride and hurried movements of English sportsmen would be of little value in the backwoods. The hasty hunter would, in all probability, frighten

THE hunter's lore. 11

more game than he killed. The American, or Indian hunter, treads with the stealthy step of a panther. His eyes are around him, penetrating the thickets in search of the twitch of a tail or ear as a fly is driven away, or catching the sparkle of an eye as his game peers through the foliage. The ground is eagerly scanned for ^ sign ' as to what game has passed that way, and how long since. The bruised twigs of a bush tell him plainly enough that not long ago some lordly buck rubbed the velvet from his newly-developed antlers. Beneath a large tree are some * turkey scratchings,' and other signs, in which a tiro would discern no difference, but the keen-sighted woodranger knows as well as if he had seen the animals, that a few hours ago a couple of the fierce Texan boars passed beneath that live oak tree.

Nor are the ears less diligently trained than the eyes. The hunter must mark with exactness the various sounds heard in the forest. He must be able to distinguish the fall of an acorn on the withered leaves from the jump of the squirrel that shook the nut from its husk, even though those sounds should proceed from a distance of a hundred yards.

Not only must he thus hioiv the sounds of the forest ; but, in order to be a successful hunter, he must be able to imitate them artistically. He must call upon his ' turkey-caller ' in the spring with skill enough to lure the cunning old turkey-cock to his destruction, by imitating the cry of the female, as in more northern regions they lure the bull-moose by lowing like the cow. In the latter sport the white hunter will never equal his red compeer, at least so says Lieutenant Hardy: —

' No white man has ever been able to imitate the call of the moose with such truthful resemblance to Nature as an Indian. A white man can call in the right key, and loud enough to be heard by a moose six miles off. He may even get an answer from a distant bull ; but it is when the moose approaches that he fails, and the Indian tact comes into play. The cautious brute will stop sometimes a dozen times in the half-mile before coming in range of the hunter's rifle; and then it is that those extraordinary sounds, suppressed bellowings and gruntings, which are uttered by the Indian as if proceeding from the chest of a huge animal, allay suspicions, and cause him to come crashing wildly through the bushes to his destruction.'

The inexperienced hunter having succeeded in making his way into the forest, would, as I before hinted, feel himself sorely at a loss in finding his way out, unless he is accompanied by a hunter of judgment in woodcraft. Let him penetrate into a jungle where every tree seems twin-brother to its neighbour, and the space between them is filled up with vines and weeds which trip him up. He may know that the sun

WOODCRAFT. 13

rises in the east, and sets in the west, and, therefore, that his shadow will fall in a certain direction at a certain hour. This is all very well; but there are few men who retain self-possession enough to think of all this when first they find themselves astray in an American wilderness.

Let him once turn round, so as to forget in which direction he was going, and all his knowledge and self-confidence will most probably evaporate. It is not until the American hunter has had some little practice, under the tuition of others wiser than himself, that he will be able to put into use the various woodland signs, which may have been pointed out to him as finger-posts in case of emergency.

For example, he may have been told that the moss grows with greater profusion upon the northern side of a tree-trunk than upon the southern, and that the longer branches point towards the south ; and, for a time, he may go on quietly enough, until he happens to come upon a damp soil where the moss grows in equal luxuriance upon both the northern and southern sides of the huge stems, and then he will begin to be a little puzzled to know what it means. When he looks up amongst the branches of the trees, his surprise and bewilderment will be increased ten-fold when he finds that the vegetation points with equal luxuriance to every quarter of the compass. Our tiro is certainly lost in the wood. No ! He has still a shadow, and that

14 HINTS ON FOT^EST AND PRAIRIE LIFE.

may enable him to extricate himself from his somewhat awkward *fix.' He looks downwards, but no shadow is visible. The sky is overcast, and, even if it were not so, the light of the sun could scarcely penetrate through that mass of dense green foliage overhead.

. How is he to get clear of the forest, now that both moss and trees combine to delude him, and there is no shadow ? Why, — by making a shadow.

* But, surely, you cannot do so ! ' he will say, ' Now the sun is obscured by the clouds : Pray explain that ? '

It is quite true that the sky is so overcast with clouds that your body will throw no shadow ; but still one may be produced from the shining blade of your hunting-knife ; and it can be done thus : Hold the knife by the extreme end of its handle perpendicularly, so that the point shall rest upon your thumb-nail. A shadow will then be cast across the nail from the sun, whose position will thus be determined ; and then, if you can give a pretty good guess at the time of day, your position north, east, south, and west, can be decided with tolerable accuracy.

It is impossible for the backwood's-man to know every tree on his beat, with the familiarity of an English forester, who goes over the same ground frequently ; but he must know the lay of the forest, and which way the river that divides it runs, or the outlines of the prairie that skirts it, so that he may

A FOREST OX FIRE. 15

be able to strike out at once towards the desired point.

A man, when lost in the forest — ^ greenhorns ' T mean, who cannot steer witliout a compass — invariably bears to the left; though I am not aware that there is any positive or decided reason for so doing.* But still this is a fact which has often been proved by experienced trackers, both white and red, who have in many instances traced lost persons to some spot not far froni the point of departure.

Sometimes grand sights are seen in the woods : — a dense jungle or cane-break is set on fire, perhaps b}- lightening, or by the carelessness of some hunter. Thousands of acres will fall a prey to the flames ; and the sight once seen, will never be forgotten.

High above everything, rising up towards the sk}' of deep blue, roll dense masses of smoke. Below, the red flames leap and twist and twine round the trees like thousands of huge fiery serpents, as they consume the light vines, and scorch the branches of the oaks. The canes blaze and crack with a loud noise, much resembling a continued fire of musketry. At once

the wild inhabitants of the w^ood, both four-footed and winged, fly for their lives, in frantic terror. The clumsy bear, although he looks so slow and heavy,

* The left leg being generally less powerful than the right, may, insensibly of course, be outpaced by the stronger limb. This is mere supposition, but it may account for it.

forces his way swiftly through the canes. The stealthy panther glides along with equal rapidity and less noise. Terrified herds of wild cattle dash through the jungle by sheer force of numbers and weight, snapping the thick canes as though they were bullrushes. The frightened deer rush swiftly through the more open parts of the wood towards the prairie ; while* high over head the turkey, snipe, and other birds, fly in straight lines towards a secure resting place.

The hunter also must hasten away, either to the prairie or to a stream of water broad enough to arrest the progress of the flames; and he may have even to fire the prairie in order to insure his safety.

The life which I passed in Texas as a hunter, I may well call happy. The planters and settlers were (and I believe the war has not altered them) the kindest and most hospitable people it has ever been my lot to meet. It was sometimes, indeed, a matter of difficulty to get away from the jovial hosts who cared little what happened provided the stranger would make one in a day's deer-drive, in a fishing party, or even a week's camp-hunt. Nothing less than a solemn promise of a speedy return could procure release from their hospitable houses.

For my own part, like many others, I preferred a wild, roving, independent life in the wilderness to the luxuries of a settled home. Parties were made up of men, inured to the fatigues and dangers of forest-life.

FOREST COOKERY. 17

and, two or three together, we would form a home in the woods, twelve or fifteen miles from any other human habitation; supplying the nearest town with turkeys, wild fowl, and venison so long as it remained plentiful in our neighbourhood ; and, when it began to grow scarce, we would change our camping ground, perhaps taking up a position on 'the very opposite side of the same town, at a distance of twenty-five or thii'ty miles away from our old hunting grounds.

We could then begin once more to kill the deer and turkeys with renewed success, and with a far greater relish for our wild life after, perhaps, two or three days spent in the town while passing on our way to our new quarters.

Tramping continually through the woods, and living in a pure atmosphere, the forest-hunter acquires a keen appetite, to satisfy which he kills and cooks. He differs perhaps from M. Soyer in his method of preparing food, and a turtle-fed alderman would probably turn up his nose at the repast. But in spite of this his dishes are by no means to be despised. Fish are cooked in a very primitive, though effectual manner, without having their scales removed. They are well wrapped up in broad leaves, and buried in the hot ashes and sand beneath the fire. They thus retain all their sweetness and juices. Haunches of venison are cooked to a turn before log-fires, and there is no fear of the soot coming down the chimney and spoiling the roast. Kibs and

C

18 HINTS ON FOBEST AND PRAIRIE LIFE.

kidneys can be grilled on the hot coals, or a deer's head baked in a forest oven.

This oven is simply a hole dug in the ground, and heated by making a fire in and over it. When it is thoroughly hot, the head is wrapped in moss or long grass, and placed in the hole over which the embers are then raked back. Of course the skin is not taken off until the head is cooked, which takes at least a couple of hours to accomplish. It then peels off nicely ; the meat smokes on the bark dish ; and, with just a sprinkling of red pepper on it, is a feast fit for anyone in the world.

On the prairies the hunter's life is very similar, although the game is slightly different. Instead of bears and turkeys, the hunter kills buffaloes, or more properly bisons, and prong-horned antelopes.

There are few real prairies * to be found on the east side of the Mississippi ; but on the western side of that mighty stream they extend longitudinally from the ice-bound coast of the Arctic Ocean, to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The Eastern States are, as a rule, heavily timbered; the open ground being generally swampy. The little glades of high ground are, from their small age, unworthy of the name of prairie. According to Humboldt, the true prairie country contains an area of 2,430,000 square miles.

* Nothing more than forest glades, not prairies as understood in America, though they may be meadows.

VARIETIES OF PRAIRIE. 19

There are four different kinds of prairies, though I sincerely trust the English hunter who visits America in search of game may never have occasion to hunt on the fourth, which consists only of barren sands. There are several of these deserts, but none so large in extent or so well known as that lying to the south of Santa Fe, which bears the dismal name of Jornada del Muerte (Journey of Death.)

Of course, so vast an area of prairie land presents a great variety of climate, as well as of animal and vegetable produce. On the frozen plains of the north, a stunted growth of grass barely suffices to save the reindeer from starvation. In the central regions the climate is temperate, and the prairies produce a large quantity of vegetable food for the support of the many animals that roam over them. To the south, where the sun is more powerful, there grows a thick tall grass, sometimes reaching higher than a horse's belly, though there are spots where the herbage has been consumed, and the surface presents a sweet, succulent, short food for the animals that eagerly seek it.

From the west bank of the Mississippi to the foot of the Kocky Mountains, the prairie stretches, being neither a horizontal plain nor a continuous meadow. There are many streams, — tributaries to the great river, — and these streams have generally along their banks small detached groups of trees, the cotton-

c 2 wood (^Populus angulata) being most frequently seen. The surface of the land is uneven, so that the visible horizon is seldom at a very great distance.

These are the dry or rolling prairies, upon which feed vast herds of bison, numbering sometimes from 40,000 to 50,000 head. Here, too, may be found the common deer {Cervus Virginianus) as well as its black-tailed kinsman ; and although they do not herd together in such numbers as the bison, two or three hundred may frequently be seen in a space of a square mile, adding beauty to the park-like scenery. The Wapiti, or elk, the prong-horned antelope, the wild horse, with coyotes, or prairie wolves, and hares, all live upon the rolling prairie; and at night the silence of the huge plain is often broken by the howling of wolves, or by frantic lowdngs of some buffalo cow at the loss of her calf.