Show human sleuth hounds THE INDIANS SKILL now HOW THEY TRACK A trail TIIE tile LOGIC OF wile THE PRAIRIE A dr gives this intensely interesting account of the extraordinary skill of indian trailers the tho indian or trapper that is a sib fib shrewd lewd trailer is a man of el close oe observation quick perception and prompt action As lie he goes along nothing escapes his ills observation and what ho he sees seest or hears heans lie ac counts for immediately often not another step is taken until a in mystery that may present itself in ris this line is fairly solved the tile indian trailer will stand for hours in succession to account for certain traces or effects in tracks and sometimes gives to the matter unremitting attention for days and weeks the trailer is not a graceful man he carries his head much inclined ills eye is quick and restless always on the watch and he is practicing his art unconsciously hardly ever crossing the track of mail man or animal alvi without phout seeing it when lle lie enters a house he brings the habit lie he contracted in the practice of his art with him I 1 know a trailer as soon as he enters my room he comes in through h the door softly and with an air of exceeding caution before he is fairly in or at least has sat down ho he has taken note of every article or pers pens person orif though there may be a dozen vacant chairs in the room he is not used to chairs and like the indian prefers arefe M a more humble seat when I 1 was employed by gen hamey harney last summer to take charge temporarily of the indians that were gathered near fort randall bandall dakota to form a new reservation one daya day a guide and trailer came to the generals Gene naps raPs headquarters I 1 told him to bo be sea ted he sat down on the floor bracing his back against the tile wall the general saw this and in vexation cried out ais nis my aly god why dont you take a chair when there thero are plenty here unoccupied tile the man arose and seamed seated himself lna ina in a chair but in so awkward and uncomfortable a manner that lie he looked as if lie might slip from it at any moment when this uncouth person came to transact his ills business ruth the th general lie turned out to be a man of no ordinary abilities his description of a route he took as guide and trailer for the tile Ogal lalas in bringing them from the platte to the fort was minute and exceedingly ing interesting every war party nat that crossed his trail trall he described with minuteness as to their number the kind of arm arms s t they hey had and and stated the tribes they belonged to in these strange revelations that he made there W was as neither importance nor supposition for he gave satisfactory reasons for every assertion that lie he made I 1 have ridden several hundred mues miles with an experienced guide and trailer hack whom I 1 interrogated upon many points in the practice of his art nearly all the tracks I 1 saw either elther old or new as a novice in the tile art I 1 questioned him about in going to the niobrara Nio brara river biver we crossed the track of an indian pony my guide gulde followed the track a few miles and then said it is a stray black horse with a ion lon long iong bushy buhy tail nearly starved to death lias has a split hoof of the fhe left forefoot and goe goes sVery very lame and he passed here early this ino ind morning ming bing 11 astonished and incredulous I 1 asked him the reason for know knowing ilic these particulars by the tracks of oi the animal when lie he replied iwasa it was a stray horse because it did not go in a direct line his tail was long for he drag ding 1 ged it oyer over the snow enow in brushing 1 against a bush he left left some of his hirs hair which shows its color he is very hungry for in going along he has nipped at those high dry weed weeds which horses seldom eat cat the fissure of the left forefoot left also its track and the depth of the indention shows the degree of ills his lameness and his ills tracks show lie was here this morning when the snow was hard with frost CAUSE AND EFFECT at another place we came across an indian track and ho he said it is an old yankton who came to look at his traps yn in coming over llo lie carried in ills his right hand a trap and in his left a lasso to catch a pony piny he had lost los t he returned without finding the hor horse e but had caught in his trap he h had 0 out ut a prairie wolf which lie carried home on his back and a bundle of kini kint kinie kinle wood in his right hand then lie he gave his reasons 1 I know he lie is old by the impression his lii gait has made and a yankton by that of his moccasin he is from the other side of the river as there are no Yank tons on this side the trap he carried struck the snow now and then and in the same manner as when heL hoL halcame came came shows that he did not find the pony A drop of blood in the centre of his tracks showed that he carried the wolf on his ills back and the bundle of kini kinic kinle wood wood he used as a staff for support and catching a wolf shows that ho he had traps but I 1 asked do you know its a wolf why not a fodor even a deer saidee said sald he if it had been beena a fox or ora a coyote or any other kind of small game he would never have slipped the head of the animal in his waist belt and so carried it by his side gide and not on his shoulders deer are not caught by traps but if it had been a deer he would not have crossed this tilis high hiah hill but have gone back by layf wry way of the ravine and the load would have made his steps still more tottering another indian track we saw t twenty W nty miles west of this lie he put this serious construction u upon on hes an upper india indian eila tiia eil a prowling ro W ing horse thie thief carried a douile double shotgun and is a rascal that killed some white man lately and passed here one week ago for sald said naidne be a lone indian in these tuese ase parts is on mischief and gener generally on the lookout for horses halad he had on the shoes of a white man whom lie he had in all probability hilled killed but his bis steps are those of an indian going through the ravine the end of his gun hit the deep snow A week ago we had a very warm day an and ana d the snow being soft he made these dee deep p tracks ever since it has lins been intensely cold weather which makes very shallow tracks I 1 suggested that perhaps lie bought those shoes indians dont buy shoes and if they did they tiley would not buy them as large as the these were for indians have very small feet the most noted trailer of this country was paul daloria a half breed who died dundei andel my hands hands of an indian consumption last ast summer I 1 have spoken of him in a former letter at one time I 1 rode with him and trailing was naturally y the subject of our conversation I 1 be begged aged to trail trall with him an old t track over the prairie in order orcier to td learn its history I 1 had hardi made the proposition when ho he dd drew up his horse whick which which was at a m ravine vine and well wells hero here is an old elk track let us get got off our horses and follow it we ino ivo vvo followed it but a few rods when whon hebald he said sald it was exactly a month old and made at two in the afternoon this ho he knew know as then wo we had our last min rain and at the hour ilour named the ground was was softer than at any other time the track before us was then made he broke up heiland hero and there clusters of grapes that lay in the path of the track and showed methe metho me the dry ends of some the stumps of others and by numerous other similar items accounted for many circumstances which astonished me we followed the trail over overa a mile nille now and then we saw that a wolf a fox and other animals had llad practiced their trailing instincts on oil the 06 elks tracks here and there lie would show me where a snake a rat mt and a prairie dog had crossed the track nothing had followed or crossed the track that the quick eye of daloria did not detec detects he gave an account of the habits of all the animals that had left their footprints on the track tracks also of fhe the state of the weather lier iier since the elk passed and the effects of the sunshine wind aridity sand storms and other influences that had llad a bearing on these tracks tho the tw old man li keall trailers was reticent but on this occasion seeing that I 1 was interested became specially communicative ex |