Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 276, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1913 — FLED BEFORE TRAIN [ARTICLE]

FLED BEFORE TRAIN

DEER CHASED TWENTY-FOUR MILES BY LOCOMOTIVE , , . ff~ J ' ;• ' ’ V > Evidently Fascinated by the Steel Rails, They Remained on the Track Until One Had to Be Run Down. The driver of a freight train In the Gatineau valley drove a pair of deer 24 miles in a little over an hour, his train moving at a fairly uniform rate all that time, relates the Montreal Star. At the end of the run, one of the deer, which was very fat, collapsed, and fell. The other stood stupidly staring at the big engine as It stopped, but’ when the men descended from~lt, jumped from the track and escaped. The deadly faseftmtion of the steel rails was well exemplified on the Kafcubazua plains in the same section, when a pair of Scotch Stag hounds were seen passing from the open country from the north driving a deer before them. Without heeding the shouts of. the men at the station, the hunted thing, which had evidently come from a long distance, bounded along with some difficulty following all the curves of the track down to the Stag creek bridge, through which it tripped and was then killed by the hounds. The section men on the Pontiac railway chased a little herd of three deer on a down grade, for some miles with their hand car, and ran them right up to an approaching engine. As they stopped to lift their machine clear of the track, the poor things slackened their speed, looked helplessly as they ran on to right and left and allowed the fengine to send them all to destruction. Probably at night It is the glare of the headlight which attracts, confuses and then hypnotizes the deer, and causes their deatl^^ An engine “running light,” one dark night, was derailed by • a big huff moose it had run into. The driver explained that he had seen the animal standing on the track, staring intently at the approaching headlight, but until close up to it had not imagined that It would remain there to be killed. He had, however, whistled, and then reversed his engine as it drew near the moose. For this he was greatly blamed by the superintendent, who explained that having made the mißtake of supposing that the moose would not, or could not divert Its gaze from that glaring light, he should have crowded on all Bteam In the hope of throwing the huge carcasß aside with the cowcatcher. Old locomotive drivers are well aware of the hypnotizing effect of the headlight of an engine upon the deer family, and when'possible stop and drive the creatures aside. A little group of these men discussing the matter recited numerous instances of'running into deer, which when once they have fixed their eyes on It, stand as though paralyzed in the fierce light of the locomotives. One of, them spoke of having on two occasions actually, with his hands, pushed deer from before his train, the poor things having apparently lost their i)ower of movement.