The Hunters' Feast: Conversations Around the Camp Fire

On the western bank of the Mississippi, twelve miles below the _embouchure_ of the Missouri, stands the large town of Saint Louis, poetically known as the "Mound City." Although...

Our route was west by south. The nearest point with which we expected to fall in with the buffalo was two hundred miles distant. We might travel three hundred without seeing one...

The prairie traveller never sleeps after daybreak. He is usually astir before that time. He has many "_chores_" to perform, unknown to the ordinary traveller who rests in the ro...

After an early breakfast we lit our pipes and cigars, and took to the road. The sun was very bright, and in less than two hours after starting we were sweltering under a heat al...

When the conversation about the haunts and habits of these birds began to flag, some one called for a "pigeon story." Who could tell a pigeon story? To our surprise the doctor v...

Although we had made a five miles' march from the place where we had halted to shoot the pigeons, our night-camp was still within the boundaries of the flock. During the night w...

The cougar (_Felis concolor_) is the only indigenous long-tailed cat in America north of the parallel of 30 degrees. The "wild cats" so called, are lynxes with short tails; and...

Now a panther story was the natural winding-up of this day, and it had been already hinted that old Ike had "rubbed out" several of these creatures in his time, and no doubt cou...

Our next day's march was unenlivened by any particular incident. We had left behind us the heavy timber, and again travelled through the "oak openings." Not an animal was starte...

"Chingawa," began he, "a Chippeway or Ojibway Indian, better-known at the fort as `Old Foxey,' was a noted hunter of his tribe. I had grown to be a favourite with him. My well-k...

Our next day's journey brought us again into heavy timber--another creek bottom. The soil was rich and loamy, and the road we travelled was moist, and in some places very heavy...

Foremost of all the wild creatures of America in point of being generally known is the raccoon (_Procyon lotor_). None has a wider geographical distribution, as its "range" embr...

"My 'coon-chase took place in Tennessee, where I was sojourning for some time upon a plantation. It was the first affair of the kind I had been present at, and I was somewhat cu...

Next day while threading our way through a patch of oak forest--the ground covered thickly with fallen leaves--we were startled by a peculiar noise in front of us. It was a kind...

Talking of these Spanish hogs naturally led us to the subject of the peccary--for this creature is an inhabitant only of those parts of North America which have been hitherto in...

During our next day's journey we again fell in with flocks of the wild pigeon, and our stock was renewed. We were very glad of this, as we were getting tired of the dry salt bac...

During our next day's march the only incident that befel us was the breaking of our waggon-tongue, which delayed our journey. There was plenty of good hickory-wood near the plac...

"Well, upon the morrow," continued the Englishman, "we had our guanaco hunt, and killed several of the herd we had seen on the previous day. There was nothing particular in rega...

We were now travelling among the spurs of the "Ozark hills," and our road was a more difficult one. The ravines were deeper, and as our course obliged us to cross the direction...

The doctor was the only one not taking part in the conversation. Even the rude guides listened. All that related to game interested them, even the scientific details given by th...

After some time spent in recovering the horses, we lifted the bear into Jake's waggon, and proceeded on our journey. It was near evening, however, and we soon after halted and f...

"Well, then," began Redwood, "the thing I'm agoin' to tell you about, happened to me when I war a younker, long afore I ever thought I was a coming out hyar upon the parairas. I...

During our next day's journey we fell in with and killed a couple of deer--a young buck and doe. They were the first of these animals we had yet seen, and that was considered st...

As we were now approaching the regions where the common fallow deer ceased to be met with, and where its place is supplied by two other species, these last became the subject of...

A--'s adventure ending in a grizzly bear story, drew the conversation upon that celebrated animal, and we listened to the many curious facts related about it, with more than usu...

As adventure with grizzly bears which had befallen the "captain" was next related. He had been travelling with a strange party--the "scalp-hunters,"--in the mountains near Santa...

In our journey we had kept far enough to the north to avoid the difficult route of the Ozark Hills; and we at length encamped upon the Marais de Cygnes, a branch of the Osage Ri...

While crossing the marshy bottom through which our road led, a singular hoof-track was observed in the mud. Some were of opinion that it was a track of the great moose-deer, but...

After crossing the Marais de Cygnes River the country became much more open. There was a mixture of timber and prairie-land--the latter, however, constantly gaining the ascendan...

"No one who has turned over the pages of a picture-book of mammalia will be likely to forget the odd-looking animal known as the tapir. Its long proboscis-like snout, its stiff-...

The long looked for day at length arrived when the game were to be met with, and I had myself the "distinguished honour" of being the first not only to see the great buffalo, bu...

The bison--universally, though improperly, called buffalo--is, perhaps, the most interesting animal in America. Its great size and strength-- the prodigious numbers in which it...

After a breakfast of fresh buffalo-meat we took the road in high spirits. The long-expected sport would soon come off. Every step showed us "buffalo sign"--tracks, wallows, fres...

Next morning, just as we were preparing to resume our journey, a gang of buffalo appeared upon one of the swells, at the distance of a mile or a mile and a half from our camp. T...

We found Ike and Redwood bitterly angry at the bull they had slain. They alleged that he had made a rush at them in coming up, and that was why they had risen to their feet and...

Our condition was now lamentable indeed. We even hungered for our breakfast, and had nothing to eat. The fire had consumed everything. A party went to look for the remains of th...

The two trappers, in company with two others of the same calling, were on a trapping expedition to one of the tributaries of the Great Bear River, west of the Rocky Mountains, w...

The spot we had chosen for our camp was near the edge of a small rivulet with low banks. In fact, the surface of the water was nearly on a level with that of the prairie. There...

We awoke more confident of our future. We had now provision enough and thousands of pounds to spare. It only remained for us to make it portable, and preserve it by drying; and...