Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-03
SPOTTED WILD CATTLE.
A BREED OF THE BOVINE FAMILY
 THAT IS PUZzLlNG HUNTERS.

Surmises as to Their Origin-Bulls with 1
 the Skill of Trained Generals-An Efforts l
 to Cultivate Their Friendship Have Proved Futile. In the lonesome defiles of the Coquille mountains there has roamed at will for half dozen years band of strange wild cattle Hunters pronounce them a distinct breed from those which have been so long in- habiting the Umpqua river They are leopard like in color, being dotted with black in a skin of dun. Their horns are thin and long and as | smooth as though polished with emery. Moreover, they are pony built, and their tails are long, sweeping and brush like Their hoofs, like their horns, from constant contact | with vigorous undergrowth, are smooth and glossy. Quick of eye, fleet of foot and with a strange power of scenting out enemies, they have proved more than a match for the local l sportsmen who have at various times gone to the heights in pursuit of them.
 1 FATHER DE voE's SPOTTED COW. l "Well, those cattle are an anomaly, sure enough" said c. J. Andrews, a resident of 1 Coquille, forty-five miles up from the Pacific ocean, to a reporter at the American Ex- change hotel here today. "Their origin is shrouded in mystery. Some say they are de- scended from spotted COW which stlayed away from Father De Voc in 1862 The old 1 man De Voc lives at the mouth of the Co quille. He was the first settler there, and | brought three or four COWS with him when l he came by wagon from the lower Platte. About a year afterward he lost COW that was about to calve, and, though he hunted far and near throughout the heavy pines which skirt the Coquille, he could never find her, but when news began to come in after three or four years that there were some wild cattle up in the mountains, he half thought it must be his COW and her progeny. There are others, however, and De Voc is inclined to share their belief, who think that this breed of cattle has always been wild, that they are indigenous to that region, the same as the wild cattle of Mexico.
 Certain 1t is, at any rate, that all attempts to subdue these cattle have been futile. In 1878 Tom Withrow, a hunter of the Coquille, after long attempt to kill some of them, succeeded in capturing a calf. The calf was the old COW would not leave 1t, and at once charged furiously upon him. He was mounted on a fleet Oregon mustang, and he put spurs to him and got out of there as quickly as he was able. The COW and the
 pony tore down the hill through the brush at a terrible pace, and old Tom thought he was done for. There was blood ill the cows eye,
 and vindictive, menacing look, which put
 speed into both rider and horse. The hum ter's gun was strapped to the pony's side, and
 he had no time to use it. The COW pursued him for nearly half mile, and until the
 mustang had chucked Withrow over his
 head, down steep declvity, and both horse . | and horseman were separated and routed.
 Then bos-bovis returned to her calf.
 AN OLD HUNTER oUTwITTED.
 sTom was mad. He was an old hunter,
 and didn't much relish being routed by @
 COW. He recaptured his pony, tied him to a
 tree, and, unstrapping his gun, started in a roundabout way up through the hills afoot. He dodged from tree to tree, and finally
 climbing one he was able to descry the wild COW, with her head and tail up, her eyes
 blazing, sniffing the air. He was within
 rifle shot, and succeeded in putting two balls
 into her. She beloved furiously, but the
 wounds were mortal and she could not attack him.
 Capturing the calf, which was spotted like its mother, Withrow strapped it to his
 saddle and carried it home. For two years
 he tried to domesticate that calf. Just wher
 he thought he was succeeding 1t broke ano
 got away to the mountains He never saw
 it afterward.
 r "In 1884 Henry McLane and Bill Jeffries f two Coos bay men, went up into the CoQuille
 mountains and spent two weeks there. They
 went hunting for these cattle, as we'll as fol
 bear and cougar After the most skillfu manipulations they finally succeeded in kill , ing an old bull. He was the outpost o a band, was a fighter from way back
 and would have made it hot for them, bu
 they got the drop on him, after following tn,
 band assiduously for several days Tn. 3 others, to the number of twenty or thirty
 got away. All were spotted with black, nt | ono hair h thon ell A01lo
 You may be sure they were very pretty, a
 they were fat and their hair was short. suppose there are no handsomer cattle any
 where than these wild ones in the Oregon : wilderness.
 "This old bull was a good one. He was no s unusually large, weighing about ], 100 pounds 6 but he was clean limbed a race horse, jus ,, about as fleet, and as pretty as picture.
 "Since that time various people have gon ? after these queer cattle, but nobody has sue ]. ' ceeded in getting any. It is uphill business o Nobody lives up in those mountain tops. y is rough, wild and lonesome, fit home fo s all kinds of wild animals, and all kind 6 abound there. An exceedingly nutrition 2 grass grows there. It is SO succulent tha 1T horses, when they can get it, need no othe e feed. The country is so rocky, cut up wit
 canyons, and with profusion of weird mour
 tain tops so fantastically formed as not onl " to give beautiful effect, but to form saf A retreat for these wild denizens of this remot :, corner of Oregon.
 9 "Just how many of the leopard like vii Il cattle there are there it will take g long tim D to find out. Nobody can arrive at it wit 5 any degree of certainty. There may be forty a there may be a hundred."-San Francisc d Cor. New York Sun.
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 3, An Electric Dog Cart.