In hunting American big game with hounds,several entirely distinct methods are pursued.The true wilderness hunters,the men who in the early days lived alone in,or moved in parties through,the Indian-haunted solitudes,like their successors of to-day,rarely made use of a pack of hounds,and,as a rule,did not use dogs at all.In the eastern forests occasionally an old time hunter would own one or two track-hounds,slow,with a good nose,intelligent and obedient,of use mainly in following wounded game.Some Rocky Mountain hunters nowadays employ the same kind of a dog,but the old time trappers of the great plains and the Rockies led such wandering lives of peril and hardship that they could not readily take dogs with them.The hunters of the Alleghanies and the Adirondacks have,however,always used hounds to drive deer,killing the animal in the water or at a runaway.
As soon,however,as the old wilderness hunter type passes away,hounds come into use among his successors,the rough border settlers of the backwoods and the plains.Every such settler is apt to have four or five large mongrel dogs with hound blood in them,which serve to drive off beasts of prey from the sheepfold and cattle-shed,and are also used,when the occasion suits,in regular hunting,whether after bear or deer.
Many of the southern planters have always kept packs of fox-hounds,which are used in the chase,not only of the gray and the red fox,but also of the deer,the black bear,and the wildcat.The fox the dogs themselves run down and kill,but as a rule in this kind of hunting,when after deer,bear,or even wildcat,the hunters carry guns with them on their horses,and endeavor either to get a shot at the fleeing animal by hard and dexterous riding,or else to kill the cat when treed,or the bear when it comes to bay.Such hunting is great sport.
Killing driven game by lying in wait for it to pass is the very poorest kind of sport that can be called legitimate.This is the way the deer is usually killed with hounds in the East.In the North the red fox is often killed in somewhat the same manner,being followed by a slow hound and shot at as he circles before the dog.Although this kind of fox hunting is inferior to hunting on horseback,it nevertheless has its merits,as the man must walk and run well,shoot with some accuracy,and show considerable knowledge both of the country and of the habits of the game.
During the last score of years an entirely different type of dog from the fox-hound has firmly established itself in the field of American sport.This is the greyhound,whether the smooth-haired,or the rough-coated Scotch deer-hound.For half a century the army officers posted in the far West have occasionally had greyhounds with them,using the dogs to course jack-rabbit,coyote,and sometimes deer,antelope,and gray wolf.Many of them were devoted to this sport,--General Custer,for instance.I have myself hunted with many of the descendants of Custer's hounds.In the early 70's the ranchmen of the great plains themselves began to keep greyhounds for coursing (as indeed they had already been used for a considerable time in California,after the Pacific coast jack-rabbit),and the sport speedily assumed large proportions and a permanent form.Nowadays the ranchmen of the cattle country not only use their greyhounds after the jack-rabbit,but also after every other kind of game animal to be found there,the antelope and coyote being especial favorites.Many ranchmen soon grew to own fine packs,coursing being the sport of all sports for the plains.In Texas the wild turkey was frequently an object of the chase,and wherever the locality enabled deer to be followed in the open,as for instance in the Indian territory,and in many places in the neighborhood of the large plains rivers,the whitetail was a favorite quarry,the hunters striving to surprise it in the early morning when feeding on the prairie.
I have myself generally coursed with scratch packs,including perhaps a couple of greyhounds,a wire-haired deer-hound,and two or three long legged mongrels.However,we generally had at least one very fast and savage dog--a strike dog--in each pack,and the others were of assistance in turning the game,sometimes in tiring it,and usually in helping to finish it at the worry.With such packs I have had many a wildly exciting ride over the great grassy plains lying near the Little Missouri and the Knife and Heart Rivers.Usually our proceedings on such a hunt were perfectly simple.We started on horseback and when reaching favorable ground beat across it in a long scattered line of men and dogs.Anything that we put up,from a fox to a coyote or a prong-buck,was fair game,and was instantly followed at full speed.The animals we most frequently killed were jack-rabbits.
