by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
HARE HUNTING AND CRICKET DRIVING.
The two trappers, in company with two others of the same calling, wereon a trapping expedition to one of the tributaries of the Great BearRiver, west of the Rocky Mountains, when they were attacked by a band ofhostile Utahs, and robbed not only of the produce of their hunt, buttheir horses and pack-mules were taken from them, and even their armsand ammunition. The Indians could have taken their lives as well, butfrom the interference of one of the chiefs, who knew old Ike, they wereallowed to go free, although in the midst of the desert region wherethey were, that was no great favour. They were as likely as not toperish from hunger before they could reach any settlement--as at thattime there was none nearer than Fort Hall upon the Snake River, adistance of full three hundred miles. Our four trappers, however, werenot the men to yield themselves up to despair, even in the midst of adesert; and they at once set about making the most of theircircumstances.
There were deer upon the stream where they had been trapping, and bearalso, as well as other game, but what did that signify now that they hadno arms? Of course the deer or antelopes sprang out of the shrubbery orscoured across the plain only to tantalise them.
Near where they had been left by the Indians was a "sage prairie," thatis, a plain covered with a growth of the _artemisia_ plant--the leavesand berries of which--bitter as they are--form the food of a species ofhare, known among the trappers as the "sage rabbit." This creature isas swift as most of its tribe, but although our trappers had neither dognor gun, they found a way of capturing the sage rabbits. Not by snaringneither, for they were even without materials to make snares out of.Their mode of securing the game was as follows.
They had the patience to construct a circular fence, by wattling thesage plants together, and then leaving one side open, they made a"surround" upon the plain, beating the bushes as they went, until anumber of rabbits were driven within the inclosure. The remaining partof the fence was then completed, and the rabbit hunters going insidechased the game about until they had caught all that were inside.Although the fence was but about three feet in height, the rabbits neverattempted to leap over, but rushed head foremost against the wattles,and were either caught or knocked over with sticks.
This piece of ingenuity was not original with the trappers, as Ike andRedwood admitted. It is the mode of rabbit-hunting practised by sometribes of western Indians, as the poor Shoshonees and miserable"diggers," whose whole lives are spent in a constant struggle to procurefood enough to sustain them. These Indians capture the small animalsthat inhabit their barren country by ways that more resemble theinstinct of beasts of prey than any reasoning process. In fact thereare bands of these Indians who can hardly be said to have yet reachedthe hunter state. Some of them carry as their sole armour a long stickwith a hooked end, the object of which is to drag the _agama_ and thelizard out of its cave or cleft among the rocks; and this species ofgame is transferred from the end of the stick to the stomach of thecaptor with the same despatch as a hungry mastiff would devour a mouse.
Impounding the sage hare is one of the master strokes of theirhunter-craft, and forms a source of employment to them for aconsiderable portion of the year.
Our four trappers, then, remembering the Indian mode of capturing thesecreatures put it in execution to some advantage, and were soon able tosatisfy their hunger. After two or three days spent in this pursuitthey had caught more than twenty hares, but the stock ran out, and nomore could be found in that neighbourhood.
Of course only a few were required for present use, and the rest weredried over a sage fire until they were in a condition to keep for somedays.
Packing them on their backs, the trappers set out, heading for the SnakeRiver. Before they could reach Fort Hall their rabbit meat wasexhausted, and they were as badly off as before. The country in whichthey now found themselves was if possible more of a desert than thatthey had just quitted. Even rabbits could not dwell in it, or the fewthat were started could not be caught. The _artemisia_ was not insufficient plenty to make an inclosure with, and it would have beenhopeless to have attempted such a thing; as they might have spent dayswithout trapping a single hare. Now and again they were tantalised byseeing the great sage cock, or, as naturalists call it, "cock of theplains" (_Tetrao urophasianus_), but they could only hear the loud"burr" of its wings, and watch it sail off to some distant point of thedesert plain. This bird is the largest of the grouse kind, though it isneither a bird of handsome plumage, nor yet is it delicate in its flesh.On the contrary, the flesh, from the nature of its food, which is theberry of the wild wormwood, is both unsavoury and bitter. It would nothave deterred the appetites of our four trappers, could they have laidtheir hands upon the bird, but without guns such a thing was out of thequestion. For several days they sustained themselves on roots andberries. Fortunately it was the season when these are ripe, and theyfound here and there the prairie turnip (_Psoralea esculenta_), and in amarsh which they had to cross they obtained a quantity of the celebratedKamas roots.
All these supplies, however, did not prove sufficient. They had stillfour or five days' farther journey, and were beginning to fear theywould not get through it, for the country to be passed was a perfectbarren waste. At this crisis, however, a new source of subsistenceappeared to them, and in sufficient plenty to enable them to continuetheir journey without fear of want. As if by magic, the plain uponwhich they were travelling all at once become covered with largecrawling insects of a dark brown colour. These were the insects knownamong the trappers as "prairie crickets," but from the description givenof them by the trappers the hunter-naturalist pronounced them to be"locusts." They were of that species known in America as the "seventeenyears' locust" (_Cicada septemdecem_), so called because there is apopular belief that they only appear in great swarms every seventeenyears. It is probable, however, that this periodical appearance is anerror, and that their coming at longer or shorter intervals depends uponthe heat of the climate, and many other circumstances.
They have been known to arrive in a great city, coming not from afar,but out of the ground from between the bricks of the pavement and out ofcrevices in the walls, suddenly covering the streets with theirmultitudes. But this species does not destroy vegetation, as is thecase with others of the locust tribe. They themselves form thefavourite food of many birds, as well as quadrupeds. Hogs eagerly feedupon and destroy vast numbers of them; and even the squirrels devourthem with as great a relish as they do nuts. These facts were furnishedby the hunter-naturalist, but our trappers had an equally interestingtale to tell.
As soon as they set eyes upon the locusts and saw that they werecrawling thickly upon the plain, they felt that they were safe. Theyknew that these insects were a staple article of food among the sametribes of Indians--who hunt the sage hare. They knew, moreover, theirmode of capturing them, and they at once set about making a largecollection.
This was done by hollowing out a circular pit in the sandy earth, andthen the four separating some distance from each other, drove thecrickets towards a common centre--the pit. After some manoeuvring, alarge quantity was brought together, and these being pressed upon allsides, crawled up to the edge of the pit, and were precipitated into itsbottom. Of course the hole had been made deep enough to prevent themgetting out until they were secured by the hunters.
At each drive nearly half a bushel was obtained, and then a fresh pitwas made in another part of the plain, and more driven in, until ourfour trappers had as many as they wanted.
The crickets were next killed, and slightly parched upon hot stones,until they were dry enough to keep and carry. The Indians usually poundthem, and mixing them with the seeds of a species of gramma grass, whichgrows abundantly in that country, form them into a sort of bread, knownamong the trappers as "cricket-cake." These seeds, however, ourtrappers could not procure, so they were compelled to eat the parchedcrickets "pure and unmixed;" but this, in the condition in which theythen
were, was found to be no hardship.
In fine, having made a bundle for each, they once more took the route,and after many hardships, and suffering much from thirst, they reachedthe remote settlement of Fort Hall, where, being known, they were ofcourse relieved, and fitted out for a fresh trapping expedition.
Ike and Redwood both declared that they afterwards had their revengeupon the Utahs, for the scurvy treatment they had suffered, but what wasthe precise character of that revenge they declined stating. Bothloudly swore that the Pawnees had better look out for the future, forthey were not the men to be "set afoot on the parairy for nuthin."
After listening to the relations of our guides, a night-guard wasappointed, and the rest of us, huddling around the camp-fire, were soonas sound asleep as though we were reposing under damask curtains, onbeds of down.