Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1883 — Lieut.Sehwatka as a Musk-Ox Hunter. [ARTICLE]

Lieut.Sehwatka as a Musk-Ox Hunter.

r The leader of the overland Arctie expedition of 1879 describes, in the Centurif, “A Mu*k-Ox Hunt.” He savs of their- first chase after the game: “Great fears were entertained by the experienced hunters that the musk-oxen had heard our approach, and were now probably ‘doing their level best’ to escape. The sledges were immediately stopped and the dogs rapidly unhitched from them, from one to three or four being given to each of the eleven mtn and boys, white or native, that were present, who, taking their harnesses in their left hands or tying them in slipnooses around their waists, started without delay upon the trail, leaving" the tw o sledges and a few of the poorer dogs in charge ,of the Inhuit women, who had come along for that purpose. and who would follow on the trail with the empfy sledges as soon as firing was heard. The dogs, many of them old musk-ox hunters, and with appetites doubly sharpened by hard work and a constantly-diminishing ration, tugged like mad at their seal-skin harness lines, as they half buried their eager noses in the tumbled snow of the trail, and luir- ! rled their attached Iranian being along | at a flying rate that threatened a broken limb or neck at each wf the rough [gorges and jutting precipices of the : broken, stony hill-land, where the exciting chase was going on. The rapid- ! ity with which an agile native hunter ; can run when thus attached to two or : three excited dogs is astonishing. Whenever a steep valleys was encountered the Esquimos would slide down on | their feet, in a sitting posture, throwing the loose snow to their sides like esl raping steam from a hissing locomotive, \ until the bottom w-as -reached, when, quick as thought, they would throw | themselves at full length upon the | snow, and the wild, excited brutes i would drag them up the other side, : \Vh~6fe, regaining their feet, they, would ; run on at a eoiistantly-accleratirig gait, 1 tlieir guns in the meantime being held in the light hand or tiglltlv lashed upon the hack. i “We had hardly gone a mile in this f harnmscaruni chase before it became 1 evident that the musk-oxen were but a. , short distance ahead on the keen run, . and the foremost hunters began loosening their dogs to bring, the oxen to bay as soon as possible; and then, for the ; first time, these intelligent creatures j gave tongue in deep, long baying, ; as | they shot forward like arrows, and ! disappeared over the crests of the hills : amidst a perfect bewilderment of flying [-snow- and ' fluttering—harness traces. The discord of shouts and bowlings told, i ns plainly that some of the animals had ! been brought to bay not far distant, I and we soon heard a rapid series of sharp reports from the breech-loaders and magazine gnus of the advance ! hunters. We white men arrived just in time to see the final struggle. The oxen presented a most formidable-look-ing appeai ance, with their rumps firmly wedged together, a complete circle of swaying horns presented to the front, with great blood-shot eyeballs glaring like l’ed-hot shot amidst the escaping j steam from their panting nostrils, and ! pawing and plunging at the circle of ; furious dogs that encompassed them. ! The rapid blazing of magazine guns right in their faces —so close, often, as ; to burn their long, shaggy hair —added |to the striking scene. Woe to the overzealous dog that was unlucky enough to get his harness line under the hoofs of a charging and infuriated musk-ox;, for they will follow up a leash along the ground with a rapidity and certainty that would do credit to a tight-rope performer, and either paw the poor creature to death or fling him high in the air with their horns. ”