Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1888-01-12
Mocked by a Mountain Lion.

magnificent specimen of the cougar. OF
mountain lion. The other afternoon
two gentlemen stood by the cage
watching the graceful animal rs it rest
lessy moved from one end Of the cage
to the other with rhythmical precision.
Last winter" said one, Il was shoot
ing in the Sierra Tara Nate mountains,
in Mexico where. from the Signs and
tricks in the sand bottomed canyons,
these animals were very abundant Al
night one would sit upon the mesa
above our camp and give out hymn,
for the covOtes TO sing. It was an un.
earthly yell that made the goose flesh
come on top of your head. and led yor
to even wish TO be back in the land of
handorgans. My guide, Jack Bridges,
who used to be with Custer. would sit
mp in his blankets and say: GO it
when you can, for we are going to do
you up.
For days we looked for the home OF
the lion, and. although we could see
his footprints which appeared like very
b fours of clubs. he did so much rock
walking that it was impossible to trail
Inn to his cave. One day we met Il
Mexican smuggling outfit. and the cap
Ia told rs that IN II canyon several
miles from our camp there was her.
nit Lon whom he never failed to get u
glimpse of when taking the trail that
way. For years back he had missed
see ny him. but of late he had noticed
that the lion was lame-probably from
having run cactus point in his foot,
or from jumping too much out of the
way of earthquakes. The smuggler de-
scribed so accurately where the lion
ung out that we went over there the
next morning hoping TO get shot.
"Ihe canyon was just about the
worst place You ever saw. The bottom
was Jungle or scrub live oak. so dense
that we had to crawl on our hands and
knees in many.placcs. The sides were
volcanic rock, jagged and broken with
and was ut his heels. when we came
Facc to face with the lion, who was sit
ting in the mouth Of his cave trying to
stare us out of cOuntenance. He gave
one scratch aud then his long tail dis
appeared around tho corner Of big
boulder just rs we got sight of him.
Nathan bnl a rl, In Shnpt Half q,
minute later we saw him 20 limping up
the side of the Divide and when he
reached the top he Sguatted and looked
compIacently down atus He was pro-
vokingiy out of shot, and lie knew it rs
well as we did.
Then began one of the most scien-
tific hunts on record. We were both
~ mad rs hornets. Up hill and down
dale we followed that brute until dark.
He WAS never over LOCO yards away.
but never in shot. He would run. and
mp, and squat, blink at us, wigglc his
tail at us and seem to coax us to fol-
low him. Eleven miles we went in a
t ! the next morning TO get hack. We
then set TO work 10 put mp job on
that lion. We went over TO the canyon
where he lived. killed II white tailed
deer, took his paunch and trailcd it in
a circle around the canyon. The car
cass we then hung high upon limb,
five feet out from the trunk. Then we
cut up the deer's liver into thirteen
bats. for luck and dosei each with
strychn ne. We also rubbed the poison
into the paunch. which we left at the
bottom of the tree.
I'VE smiled rs we walked back to
camp, and Jack told me of an Apach e
Indian over at Montczuma mining
camp who would tan the lions hide
with dcer's brains for 81. | kept
awake that night for two hours, think,
ing whom | would Q We it TO or if |
would keep it myself. About sunrise
we struck the lions canyon. When
we got near the deer tree we expect
ed to picked up the lien every step
But we didn't H. had been there,
though. H. had eaten up the tn rleen
bats, got away with some of the
pamch, climbed up the tree. stretched
himself out. and eaten hunks rs big us
DERBY hats out of the denr's carcass
1--WE spent the day in looking for the
dead lion. but could not find him.
When we turned to 90 home we sud.
denly spell his nibS squatting down on
top of the d. vide winking at us. Al
FL Paso told II merchant tbs story.
aud showed him what was left of the
poison. He told us the strychninc We
had bought from the smugglers was q
nj of flour, of VIII CHI II barrel full
would not faz, chicken. anC
that he ought to know. for he put VI
the stuff himself"