EPIC OF THE WILD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17177, 22 October 1923, Page 7

EPIC OF THE WILD.

REE BUCK’S BIG FIGHT. THE RENEGADE PACK. In his book called “ The Way of the YVild” (says “ Literary Digest ”) Air Clarence Hawkes tells tlj© story of tne adventure of Kt*d Buck, a Virginia deer, set upon by a pack of renegade dogs, and it brings to the imagination all tho ,-terror and distress of tne wild things of the forest, who with fastbeat.ing hearts often must strive to evade the death close following after. Red Buck was a reddish brown deer with a white tail, and at the time Mr Hawkes writes about was nearly five years old. His mother was proud of him, and at first even kept aim hidden from his father, OJd Six Pointer, for if he saw so promising a male fawn | he would scent a possible rival in the future and promptly kill him His mother was early killed, and the red fawn had to shift for himself. A farmer nearby discovered that one of his cows was being regularly milked, but he forgave the motherless little fawn for the theft. Red Buck ran with the calves in the pasture, and the children at the farmhouse made a friend of him, so he would eat, out of their hands. During the first open season tho farmer shut him up, knowing that as he* trusted men he would be easily shot, and when Red Buck’s playmates, tho calves, came in for the winter Red "Buck wanted to come too. but the farmer refused, although he put out hay and turnips for him- So Red Buck fought the cold and storms and became strong and wild, and began to grow his hornsIn his third season he began to fear hunters, and bad his great battle with another savage buck. Mr Hawkes tells the epic of their fight. The next great event in his life was in the following autumn, when he* engaged in a deadly fight with his natu ral enemy, a savage old buck who had dominated the Berkshires for several years. For an hour they had struggled in deadly antler play, striking and thrusting, advancing and-retreating. Then their horns had been locked together as though with bands of stee:. For three days they had thrashed and tugged, snorted and stamped, gnashing their teeth and foamed, tearing up the turf and streaking* their sides with foam, but all to no effect. Then at last, when there had been great danger that they would both die of slow starvation, the older buck’s horn on one side had broken, and the combatants were free. For an angry five seconds they stood glaring at eacTi other, then they had fled in opposite directions, as fast as their feet and legs could carry tJieiji. They had seen enough of each other for all time. In his fiftl)/year Red Buck was a real king of deer in the Berkshires. He weighed about 3501 b, and-was a glossy reddish brown. He was deep-chested and powerful, and the muscles on his rump were of marvellous Strength. All his muscles were like cords of steel,

and very powerul. His antlers ‘were large, and his dark eyes were full of fire. It was therefor© a remarkable undertaking for the renegade pack of five outlaw dogs to try and run him down. This pack was led bv a collie named Shep, who had slipped back into a wolf state. The pack hunted together, and when they started for Red Buck he despised them and felt no fear. He was browsing when first they saw him, and the pack spread out fanwiso and kept him moving by their barking. Red

Buck became annoyed after about three hours and charged a powerful 701 b dog called Bruiser, but Shep jumped at him behind and nearly hamstrung him in the deer’s large ligament. Red Buck raged ami decided to put a few miles between them, so he ran steadily for three liours, and, as Mr Hawke saj-s, “ho skirted the entir<# Hoosac Mountains, swam t-ije Hoosatonic River three times,” but finding the pack skill with him, made for the Great Bear Swamp, the most hopeless morass in Western Massachusetts. No man ever followed there. but now. rather to his terror, tlfe pack came after, so he ran north, but the pack still followed. Mr Hawkes tells of the great hunt thus : Residents of Stockbridg© heard the full cry of tho pack in tho small hours of the morning. As daylight was breaking the great deer again doubled | back along the mountains toward his home haunts. All day Thursday he fled, and the pack pursued. Ho was not much afraid of the hut flight seemed his only course, and lie did 'really dread having them corner him in close quarters, for the wound

on his shank still stung. By Thursday evening the heroic buck was growing tired. All night he ran, first to the Vermont line, then hack to the Connesticut line. Friday was worse. “ He swam rivers, climbed mountains. 1 1. tinged through deep swamps." Into New York State: back again. Saturday came, still the renegade pack with foaming jaws pursued. Finally, “at early dawn, he came to bay at a wedge-shaped crevice in a sheer cliff.” A battle ensued, which Mr Hawkes describes: When the renegade pack closed in them saw Yiim there, his hindquarters wedged in, with the wall on three sides, presenting only his sharp cutting hoofs and his manv-pronged .antlers. His head was lowered, his legs were wide .apart because of weakness, but his eyes blazed, and as the pack came close he stamped and snorted with 'the fury of battle. Like a sledgehammer the buck's hoof descended, and Towser rolled upon the ground with a broken back. This put him out of the fight, and he crawled away into the bushes to die a few hours later. This event made the pack more careful, so they sprang and snapped and worried their quaere for another hour, but at last one of the hounds ventured too close, and the great deer’s ' hoofs descended fairly upon his skull. Tom Remington, a game warden of the Berkshires. had heard of the chase, and hastened out to sec if he could save the old buck king. He heard the great fight even at a distance, and Mr Hawkes finishes the tale thus:i The great was down on one 1 knee, he was wedged as far as possible I into the crevice, while old Bruiser had him by the nose and Shep had a firm grip on his free forelegs. They were holding him like a vice, and were in the act of pulling him down. Two careful shots stretched the dogs bv their intended victim, and left the king free from the renegade pack. Remington dropped his. Winchester to the ground and took off his hat i and saluted as the antlered king trotted i slowly bv him. As the deer passed he gave the warden one-fearful, hunted look that he not forget for many a day. Then he turned and trotted away to the cool fastness of the Great Bear Forest.