Tales of the Colorado pioneers

by theseventhgeneration
Tales of the Colorado pioneers, By Alice Polk Hill (1884). The author writes, in the Preface, "I solemnly avow that the tales herein related are - 'told as they were told to me!' If I have succeeded in reviving some pleasant recollection for the 'old timer,' beguiling the weary traveler or interesting the general reader, my aspirations have, in a measure, been reached. If I have betrayed confidence or told anything that I ought not to have told - I will graciously accept all apologies ."

Starting half way down page 276:
"The greatest evidence of the former Indian occupants was in the lower part of the country, through which the deer in great numbers pass every spring and fall. There was a V-shaped fence of stone, each arm of the V being a stone fence fully fifteen miles long; the V opening towards the mountains from which the deer came, and the point of the V, instead of being closed, was open for the deer to pass, and in cunningly dug holes would be seated the Indians to kill them. The fence, which had been built entirely by the squaws, was to turn the deer all to this one point, and though it was merely a succession of stone piles, anything that has the appearance of having been made by man is as effectual a barrier to deer as the tallest fence.

Another cunning device of the Indians is seen wherever there are rocks; when they see a rock about the size of a man's body, they place another about the size of a man's head on top. It is done to accustom the deer to such objects, so that an Indian sitting behind a stone with his head in full view, is not likely to frighten them."

The story immediately following (about a "bear") is funny, but not quite as riveting as the Poplar Science article about humans with tails!