Jack in the Rockies: A Boy's Adventures with a Pack Train

by George Bird Grinnell

  CHAPTER XVIII

  JACK'S FIRST MOOSE

  Travel down the stream next day was easy. The valley widened out,and the hills on either side grew lower. Twice during the marchthey came to broad meadows, partly overgrown with willows, oldbeaver meadows, Hugh said; and instead of going through them theywent around close to the hills, so as to avoid any possible troublefrom miry spots.

  After supper that night at camp Hugh said to the boys, "I reckonpretty quick we'll turn off south and follow up some creek, so asto get over to the Divide, and cross down onto Sweetwater. If Iain't mistaken, before we get much further along we'll strike a bigstream coming in from the south, and when we do, we've got to turnand follow that up. I've heard tell of a little town off here tothe south, but I don't know where it's at, and we don't want to goto it, anyhow."

  About noon next day they began to see a wide valley opening up tothe south, and Hugh told them that this must be the creek he hadbeen looking for. They did not follow the stream down to wherethe river from the south joined it, but cutting across southwest,climbed the hill, and journeyed through beautiful green timberin the direction in which they wished to go. Several times theycame on beautiful mountain lakes lying in the timber, and whilepassing one of these Hugh stopped and pointed to the ground, andwhen Jack came along he saw there a track which he knew must belongto a moose. He wished that he might get a shot at a moose, andkept his eyes wide open as they journeyed along, but saw nothing.Two or three times during the day they rode near enough to theriver they were following up to hear its rushing, and the noise ofwater-falls, but they could not see them. Hugh did not seem to befollowing any road at all,--there was not even a game trail,--buthe wound in and out among the timber, keeping in the generaldirection from which the river came. About the middle of theafternoon he turned to the left, and worked down into the valleyof the stream, which, though often narrow, sometimes spread outand showed charming little park-like meadows, in one of which theystopped to camp. After camp had been made, the horses attended to,and supper eaten, Jack said to Hugh, "Are there many moose in thiscountry, Hugh?"

  "Well," said Hugh, "I don't know exactly what you call many. Thereused to be plenty here, and I expect if a man was hunting he mightrun across one once in a while. Of course moose stick close to thetimber and the brush, and you don't see them as easily as you dothe elk, that feed on the bald hillsides or on the prairie."

  "I'd like mighty well to get a shot at one," said Jack.

  "Well," said Hugh, "it might be such a thing as you could do that,but you're not likely to, unless we stop for a day or two to hunt.We can do that most any time now, if we feel like it. We've gotover the ridge, and there's no danger of any snow falling, to stopus, but of course it's getting cooler all the time. If you're goingto kill an animal for meat you'd better kill a cow. On the otherhand, if you want a big head, why of course you'll kill a bull;but the bulls are pretty poor eating now; they were better twoweeks ago, just like the elk was. We've got quite a little way togo yet, and of course we've got to have meat to eat; but, on theother hand, we've got the hams of that sheep, and the piece of thatlittle bear, and we're going through a good game country all theway, so that I wouldn't kill anything more until we need it."

  "Well, Hugh, we've had lots of hunting; let's not kill anythingmore until we need it. Maybe there'll be a show down on theSweetwater to get a moose."

  "Well," said Hugh, "maybe there will be; yet this is a better placethan that. But we'll be in good moose country for quite a way yet,and maybe you'll get a chance to kill a moose, if you want to verybad."

  The stream that they were following up grew smaller and smaller,yet Hugh continued to follow it, and in the same southerlydirection. He told the boys that this stream headed in the Divide,between Wind River and Sweetwater, and that when they came to thehead of this creek it was only a short distance over to othersrunning into some of the heads of the Sweetwater.

  "It ain't far, and it ain't a high climb," he continued, "andafter we strike the Sweetwater, it's a plain trail right down tothe Platte, and then across that is home. I don't rightly know howfar it is, but I reckon it's not far from two hundred miles."

  "That means ten days then, Hugh, does it?"

  "Well," said Hugh, "you might call it ten days. Of course thatmeans if we don't have any trouble. If we should get into anydifficulties, or lose a horse or two, or something of that kind, itmight take us longer."

  Three days later they had crossed over the Divide, between the WindRiver and Sweetwater drainages, and were making their way throughthe timber down toward the Sweetwater. Camp had been made early.One of the pack horses had hurt its foot during the day, and hadgone lame, and Hugh wanted to rest the animal for a day or two;otherwise it might become so lame that he would have to leave itbehind. About the middle of the afternoon, Joe and Jack started outfrom camp to hunt, Joe taking the hills to the right of the camp,and Jack those to the left.

  It was pleasant going through the green timber so quietly as tomake no sound, and watching constantly between the tree trunks, tosee the motion of any living thing that might appear. There werea few birds in the upper branches of the trees, and now and thena grouse walked out of the way. Jack entered one of those levelpieces of forest where the trees stand a little apart and theground is covered with the pale green stems of the little mountainblueberry, which in fact is not blue in color, but red. This littlefruit is very delicious, and a favorite food for birds and beasts.Jack came to a patch where the berries were thick, and sitting downbegan to strip them from the stems and eat them. Now and then hecould hear the whistle of a meat-hawk, the harsh grating cry of aClark's crow, and the shrill scream of a hawk that soared far abovethe forest. Jack thought it most pleasant, and he liked to be therealone and just look about him, and see and listen. It seemed tohim a place where at any moment some great animal might step intosight, and begin to feed or to go about any of the operations ofits daily life, not knowing that he was there watching and enjoyingit all.

  And just as these thoughts were passing through his mind, somethingof this sort happened. It was not a very large animal, but thesight was a pretty one, none the less. He saw the slender stems ofthe huckleberry bushes shake, thirty or forty yards from him, andthe shaking came nearer and nearer, and presently he was able todistinguish that a dozen grouse were coming toward him, feeding onthe berries. He sat still, hardly daring to breathe, and beforevery long the birds were close to him, and in a moment more wereall about him. He could see the old hen, larger than all the rest,and with frayed and faded plumage, while the young birds, butlittle smaller, were much more highly colored,--bright brown andwhite and bluish. They seemed sociable little creatures, for theywere talking all the time, calling to each other much as a flockof young turkeys would call, and seeming uneasy if they becameseparated. There was one bird that wandered off quite a little toone side, and as the cries of its fellows became fainter as theypassed along, the bird stood very straight, with its head muchhigher than usual, and erected the feathers of its head and neck sothat they stood on end, giving it a very odd appearance. As soonas it had located the brood, the bird smoothed down its feathersand ran quickly toward the others. When the group got to where Jackwas sitting, they paid no attention to him whatever. One of themstopped immediately in front of him, and looked carefully at hisface, but at once resumed its feeding; and passing on both sides ofhim, they went on.

  Jack did not wish to frighten them, and so turned his head and bodyvery slowly to look after them, and he did it so carefully that thebirds were not alarmed, but finally passed out of sight and hearingwithout being frightened.

  This small adventure gave Jack very great pleasure, and he feltas if he had already been well repaid for his walk. Keeping onthrough the forest, he went down a gentle slope, and presentlyfound himself at the edge of a little meadow, surrounding a verypretty lake. Nothing was to be seen there, and he stepped out ofthe bushes to go down to the water.

  He was going along rather carelessly, ho
lding his rifle in thehollow of his left arm, when from a bunch of willows just beforehim a huge black animal with horns rushed out, and trotted upthe meadow toward the timber. Instantly Jack knew that it wasa moose, and throwing his gun to his shoulder, he fired at theanimal just before it reached the fringe of willows at the edge ofthe meadow. It seemed to him that the creature flinched a littleand then went faster, but he could not be sure. What was certainwas that it did not fall. Taking up the track, he followed it forsome distance through the timber--not a difficult task, for themoose was trotting rapidly and throwing up dirt at every stride.At length, however, he came to a piece of rocky ground, where thetracks were much harder to follow, and presently he lost them andhad to circle two or three times to find them, and from that on thework of picking them out was slow. Soon, too, he noticed that itwas growing darker, and looking at the sky he concluded that thesun had set. He had a mile or two to go, and as he did not wish tolie out during the night, he reluctantly left the moose track andstarted back for the camp. He hurried as fast as he could, and madegood progress; but after it really got dark it was impossible to govery fast. He did not feel like firing his gun, because that wouldbe as much as to say to the people in the camp that he was lost,and he did not wish to do this. He worked his way along, therefore,keeping toward camp as nearly as he could, but more by guess thananything else, because the trees stood so close that the starscould not be seen. However, the little light that still lingered inthe west gave him some idea of direction.

  At last the ground began to slope in the direction in which hewas going, and before long he saw in the sky the glare of afire. He made sure that this was the camp, and hurrying along asfast as possible, frequently stumbling over rocks and sticks andoccasionally running his face into the twigs of a dry spruce limb,he at last found himself near the bottom of the hill, and could seethe gleam of the fire through the tree-trunks. Before long he wasclose to camp, and saw that Hugh and Joe had built quite a bonfirein front of the lodge. It was the reflection of this that he hadseen in the sky.

  As he walked up to the fire, Hugh said, "Well, here you are, eh? Wedidn't know but you calculated to lie out all night."

  "Well," said Jack, "I didn't know but I'd have to do that; but Ididn't want to, and so I kept going. I think perhaps I would havestopped and built a fire back in the timber if it hadn't been thatI saw your fire, and kept coming."

  "What kept you?" said Joe.

  "Why, Joe," said Jack, "I saw a moose, the first moose I ever saw;and I had a good shot at it, running nearly straight away from me,and I ought to have killed it, but I didn't. I think I must havehit it; anyhow, I thought I saw it flinch when I shot, and it wentthrough the timber in great shape. I followed the tracks quite along way; but then it got dark, and I had to give it up and comeback.

  "I'd like to go out and look for it to-morrow, and I will, too, ifwe stay here."

  "Well," said Hugh, "we'll stay here, all right enough. I want torest up this horse's foot for a day or two. If I stay here andbathe that horse's foot, and keep him quiet, he's likely to be allright in two or three days. If we make him follow us over thesehills now, he may get so that he can't use the foot at all.

  "Pity you didn't kill your moose," he continued; "what do you thinkwas the matter?"

  "I don't know," said Jack. "I had as good a chance as I ever had ata running animal, but I think maybe I wasn't careful enough, anddidn't hold low enough. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if I shothigh on him. That seems to be my trouble often."

  "Well," said Hugh, "you'd like to go to-morrow and see if you couldfollow him up and find him. Of course he won't be good for anythingif you do find him, but you'll have the satisfaction maybe ofknowing that you killed him."

  "Won't be good for anything," said Jack; "how do you mean? Youdon't mean he'll spoil, just lying out for one night."

  "Why, son, didn't you know that? Is it possible you've travelledwith me all these months and haven't learned that unless you dressan animal as soon as it's killed it's going to spoil? It don't makeany difference whether the weather's cold or warm, but if you leavea critter with the entrails in for four or five hours it is nogood; the meat gets tainted."

  "Well," said Jack, "That's news to me. I never heard that before."

  "Oh," said Joe, "everybody knows that."

  "Yes," said Jack, "everybody but me."

  After Jack had put his gun in the lodge, he brought out the coffeepot and frying pan, and ate some food, and then sat there by thefire, very melancholy, because he had not got his moose.

  "He had horns, Hugh," Jack said, "and if I should be able to findhim to-morrow, I could bring those in, couldn't I?"

  "Yes," said Hugh, "the horns won't be spoiled. It's only that themeat wouldn't be good to eat. Were his horns big?"

  "No," said Jack, "I don't think they were very big; they stuck outon both sides. You see, I didn't get much of a look at him, exceptwhen he was running away. Then I could see his horns, but I wasn'tlooking at them; I was trying to pick out the place to shoot, and Ididn't pick it out very well."

  The next morning Hugh told the boys that they had better go out andsee whether they could find the moose, or another one, but warnedthem to watch the sky, and keep their direction, so that they wouldbe sure to get back. He warned them also to notice carefully, andnot get over the Divide. So long as they stayed on this side, thestreams running down toward the Sweetwater would always help themto find camp; but if they crossed the Divide and got into theWind River drainage, then the streams would only confuse them,especially as the timber was thick, and the sky could not be seen,and so the direction could not be told from that. Jack did notattempt to go back to the point where he had lost the moose tracks,but instead kept off to the south, in order to cross the tracksagain, and pick them up where they were plain. He felt sure thathe and Joe would have no trouble in following them up to the pointwhere the darkness had obliged him to give them up.

  They soon found the tracks, and Jack, from his memory of thecountry passed over the night before, was able to follow them quiterapidly to the place where he had finally left them. Beyond herethe trail was not hard to follow. The timber was thick and theground damp; there was much moss, and the great hoofs of the moosetore this up, so that the trail was plainly visible; and here Jackhad the first confirmation of his belief that he had hit the moose,for Joe called attention to a bush against which the animal hadrubbed, and showed on it a little smear of dried blood.

  By this time the moose had stopped trotting and was walking; andafter a while they saw before them lying on the pale soil, amongthe tree-trunks, a dark object stretched out, which they presentlyrecognized as the moose. He had lain down here and died as he lay.The body was rigid now and somewhat swollen. Although the moose wasnot a large one, to Jack he seemed enormous--much taller, longer,and deeper through than an elk, and with a huge ungainly head and aswollen upper lip.

  "Well, Jack," said Joe, "what are you going to do now? You killedthe moose, and you know it, but we can't take any of the meat. Youmight come up here and get the horns, if you want to pack them backwith you, but it's no use to butcher the animal; you can see foryourself that the meat is spoiled."

  "Yes," said Jack, "I suppose it is. I'm awfully sorry; I hate tosee a great big lot of meat go to waste like this, but there'snothing to be done now. I ought to have shot better."

  "Well, I'll tell you what let's do," said Joe: "let's go back tocamp, and catch up our horses, and come up here and get thosehorns. In fact I guess we may as well bring a pack horse with us.Horns are awful unhandy things to carry on a saddle, but we canput the head on a pack so that it will ride well."

  "Well," said Jack, "we may as well do that, I think," and they roseto go.

  "I'll stick a knife in this carcass," said Joe, "and if I do thatit will be pleasanter to work about when we get back."

  He plunged his knife into the animal's side and there was anoutburst of gas; then the two boys went back to the camp.