CHAPTER XVIII.
Dangerous Hunting at the Bosque.—Dr. McNulty's Adventure.—Don Carlos and his Indians.—Mr. Descourtis' Adventure.—Nah-kah-yen and Nah-tanh.—Hunting a Lion.—The Indian and the Panther.—Combat Between a Bear and a Lion.—The Result.—Beavers.—Apache Love of Torturing.—Gallant Indian.—A Wounded Apache to be Dreaded.
Among the Apaches under my charge were a number highly renowned as hunters. Those men seemed to possess a peculiar sagacity for this business, and whenever I indulged in a hunt I invariably took one or more of them with me. The Pecos for twenty-five miles about the Bosque Redondo is fringed for a half mile in depth, on both sides, with gigantic cotton-wood trees, or rather it was, for I have since learned that they were nearly all destroyed in furnishing fuel to the numerous body of Indians collected at Fort Sumner, and for the garrison at that place; and in consequence of the scarcity now existing, the fort and Reservation have either been abandoned by this time, or soon will be, as the Indian Department has already taken steps to locate the Reservation on a more favorable location.
The cotton-woods and the dense undergrowth of shrubbery, which produced many kinds of wild berries, and large fields of wild sun-flowers, abounding with nutricious seeds, render the Bosque Redondo a favorite abode with wild turkeys, which existed there in great numbers, and were exceedingly fat and fine flavored. My Apache friends kept my larder lavishly supplied with turkeys, grouse, deer, bear and antelope hams,
