Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1888 — KIT CARSON’S WONDERFUL SHOT. [ARTICLE]

KIT CARSON’S WONDERFUL SHOT.

Piercing t'.ie Neck of an Eagle When It Wa» Almost Invisible. [From the St. Paul Globe.] Kit Carson was the crack shot in the Rocky Mountains in his day, and many are the stories told on the frontier of his quick eye and unerring aim. There will never be another Kit Carson, for there is no longer a great and unknown wilderness to develop men of his peculiar type. Occasionally now you will find in the West gray-headed, sturdy old pioneers who knew Carson in his prime, when the aim of his rifle meant death, for he was often heard to say: “I can kill as far as my rifle can carry.” Captain L. W. Cutler, one of the proprietors of the Denver Field and Farm, was a “fifty-niner” and knew Carson well, and in a recent conversation related an incident in the life of the old hunter and scout which showed his wonderful skill with the rifle: and the story as told me by Captain Cutler probably recalls as fine a shot as Kit Carson ever made, and of which the Captain was an eye witness. It was in the spring of 1863, and Captain Cutler, then a Deputy United States Marshal, was en route to old Fort Bent, below Pueblo, Colorado. The country was sparsely settled, only here and there finding a small settlement along the Arkansas River, which he was following. He was traveling alone on horseback, and the second morning of his journey broke camp very early, starting out at dawn. He had followed the course of the river, when, just at sunrise, the loneliness of his journey was relieved by the sight of a cabin in a heavy growth of cottonwoods on the bank of the Arkansas. Just at that moment he saw a monster Rocky Mountain eagle darting down almost with the rapidity of lightning. Near the cabin was a corral, in which were a large number of sheep, and thither the great eagle was bent for prey. Reining up his horse the Captain awaited the result. There was a wild bleating and a rapid flight of the sheep, but a moment later the eagle rose from the corral bearing a large lamb with it. The lamb did not seem to impede its flight in the least, and the great strength of the eagle can readily be discerned by its breaking some branches near the top of the trees by the fearful stroke of its wings. Upward and upward it soared, the course of its flight being not far from the perpendicular. At this moment a woman came out of the cabin, and seeing the eagle with the lamb in its talons, uttered a shriek and hastened to the house. A moment later that Captain Cutler saw a man come out of the cabin with a long rifle in his hand. He was dressed in a slouch hat, pantaloons and a white shirt. Just think of it, a white shirt in Colorado as early as 1863. By this time the eagle was soaring high, with its course over the river. To the Captain it was becoming more like a dark speck in the sky, and when he saw the man raise his rifle to shoot he said to himself: “I wonder what fool is going to try to shoot that eagle.” But hardly had he muttered the exclamation till there was a flash from the rifle. Only a second had the man looked toward the eagle, and the stock of the rifle had hardly reached his shoulder before he fired. For a moment it was difficult to tell the result of the shot, as the eagle was so far away. The speck became larger. The eagle had been hit. It was falling. It, came down slowly, for it fluttered desperately, swooping its great wings, trying to retain its place in mid air. It then circled round and round, and losing control of its wings, eagle ■ and lamb fell in some thick brush on the opposite side of the river. With a look of amazement, Captain Cutler rode up to the cabin to learn the name of the man who made such a w onderful shot. The man had been leaning on his rifle until the rider came near, when he exclaimed :

“Hello, Captain Cutler, is that you ?” “Why, if it isn’t Kit Carson,” said Cutler, as he dismounted, and the two friends shook hands, and Cutler, continuing, said: “I saw you come out of the cabin, and was wondering what fool was trying to kill that eagle. But had I known it was you, Kit, I would not have doubted it a moment.” “Well,” replied Kit, “I was a little in doubt myself, but I knew I would hit the bird if my gun would carry. I can hit as far as a gun will carry a bullet. But, as luck would have it, my old rifle was loaded,” and the old hunter gave a look of pride at the now oldfashioned, long-barreled muzzle-loader. Mounting his horse, Cutler said he would ford the stream and find the eagle. “Be careful,” advised Carson; “the eagle may be only wounded, and if so it will be clangorous. I shot for its head.”

“Its head!” exclaimed Cutler, in astonishment. “Why, how could you see an eagle's head that far away?” and Kit Carsbn only laughed for reply. Captain Cutler found'both eagle and lamb dead, the talons of one leg still buried in the back of the lamb, which weighed about twenty pounds. Returning to thecabin. the Captain said, “The eagle was shot through the throat. ” “The throat!” said Carson. “Well, the eagle was so far away it was hard to judge the distance. 1 shot at its head by aiming a little above it. I should have aimed half an inch higher.” . The Egyptian petroleum explorations on the Red Sea coast have some time ago been given up. It is said the Government spent in the neighborhood of $750,000 in these explorations,, and has nothing to show in return for this very considerable outlay except worn machinery. *