The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-02-01
HOME OF THE PUMA.
The Sierra Honda Range Their
Favorite Haunt.
A Land of Cayerns, Where the Animal
Is Undisturbed-His Habits and
Characteristics-A Hunter Hunted
The Reyuard OF Mexican Folklore.

About forty miles east of Mazatlan, on
the Gulf of California, the old overland
road to Zacatecas and Tampico reaches
the foothills of a mountain range known
as the Sierra Honda, or the Cerro de
Pinos, and famed as the stronghold of
Eracles Bernal, the Mexican Dick Tur-
pin, who defied the power of the Govern
ment for nearly fifteen years.
The foothills of the Cerro consists of a
porous limestone which reappears here
and there on the North Pacific las on the
John Day River in Oregon, and from
Sausalito to San Sebastian, a distance of
nearly 200 miles, the western slope of the
Sierra is literally honey-combed with
caverns, some of them forming the SUBJ
let of subterranean rivers, often hanked
by broad galleries, leading to dome-like
grottoes and gypsum catacombs In the IN
Terror OF the mountain range.
Higher up the portals of these caverns
are screened by thlckets of shrub pines
and enebrOS Ia species of juniper trees,
and here the puma, or American lion,
reigns supreme, favored by an unrivaled
combination of typographical advantages,
and inexpungable as his royal kinsman
IN the highlands OF Mount Atlas.
Like the king OF the African desert, the
fetlS cOncojOg' is essentiallya dry land cat,
fond of sunny hill countries, but appre-
clatlng trees for the sake of shelter, and
apt 10 disappear from districts where the
arborial vegetation of the uplands has
been reduced beyond a certain minimum.
By forest destruction alone the puma has
been dislodged from considerable areas of
the North Mexican border States, where
The loss in timber has, to some degree
been compensated by the greater security
OF the pasture lands.
But in the mountains of Sinaloa the
hopelessness of such attempts has been
proved by numerous experiments. The
forests of the dittrdS, or highland dis
tricts, consists of mesquite, pine and oak,
OF which only the last can be etfectually
exterminated. The mosquitoes, together
with their underbrush of juniper shrubs,
will sprout up again from the merest
Vestige of roots, ana in the worst case the
puma can fall back upon the labyrinth of
caverns offering thousands of inlets and
outlets and interconnected by network
of hidden tunnels. Favored by his owl
eyes, the mountain lion avoids the preci
plces OF that underground world that has
proved the tomb OF many good dog and
enterprislng trapper, and on one occasion
she puma, vanishing into crevice with
her litter of cubs, was found to have made
her escape from cave, miles away, on
the opposite slope of the mountain ridge.
4NtdI OdIlld hOSd ue Ids Il
Yankee Colonel once invited NE TO take
look at the gate of the neither world only
about forty yards from the entrance of
cave glittering with stalactites, and ap-
parentiy widening as we proceeded, till
suddenly She gallery contracted to mere
shelf while the floor of the grotto termi-
mated at the brink of an unfathomable
abyss. The first bowlder dropped into
that pittall of Tartarus got lodged in
lateral crevice, but the rumbling of the
second could be heard for nearly half a
minute, till the last reverberations seemed
TO die away in that region which disci-
pie of Mr.. Kearney describes as a depth
so near central hades that Chinaman
would feel half at home"
In these Businesses of the rock-elfs the
catamount brings forth her kittens about
the end of March, and two months after
introduces them to the scene of their fu-
ture activity, the great game preserve of
the upper Sierra. Amateur sportsmen
are rare in the land of our next neighbo
and the pastoral population of the foot
hills hardly exceeds an average oftwo fam
lies to a dozen square miles; but the ZOO
logical census comprises herds of mount
ain antelope, deer, pheasants, three or
four varieties ofrabbits, squirrels and ma
yd3rOS-a specie of burrowing rodents
allied TO the Alpine marmot. But there
are times when the caterwauling of am
Orous pumas can be heard from hum
dred different points OF the rock wilder
ness from the summit cliffs to the depths
of the abyssmal valleys, and the supply
of legitimate food may fail to supply the
demand; droughts, too, now and then
drive the game OF the uplands to the low
levels, where the moisture of the cave
streams nourlshes aperennial vegetation.
In stress of such circumstances, the
puma population of the Sierras NAV be
obliged to solve the problem of Malthus
in a way OF his own not apt to be sane
toned by the conservative stock -raisers
of the TERRA Templada. In Russia COM
petitorS for Government contracts are
said to calculate their terms with due
allowance for the brides eXacted by the
board of Doodle commissioners, and
similar wisdom of experience has taught
the sheep-farmers of Western Mexico to
estimate their profits with liberal mar
gin for the extra assessments levied by
the four footed tax collectors OF the Sierra
Honda. Three years ago, when the
Mexican Government discontinued the
bounties for the scalps of carnivorous
brutes, the Governor of Sinaloa recon-
mended State appropriation to maintain
the benehcent custom, estimating the
cost caused by the ravages of beasts of
prey at 600, 600 pesos year.
In the folklore of Spanish America the
puma, or cougar, as the MeXicans call
him, plays the part of Reynard, the de-
ceiver, and i'll cunning, he is, indeed, as
clearly superior to his big relatives as the
the fox TO the wolf or the jackal. His
night-gray coat Is a coat of darkness that
enables him to reconnoiter dangerous
ground with success realized only by
travellers awakened at their campfire by
the growing of dog, bristliug up as he
scents the approach of nocturnal prowler,
who appears to circle round and round
the bivouac, but manages to remain ac-
tually invisible to human eyes. Unlike
the lion and jaguar, he hunts in silence.
recognizing the folly of jeopardizing his
business chances by "halloing before you
are out of the woods" and even in the
beast combats of the Mexican arena he
remains mute while the issue of the
scuffie is at all doubtful, though a conclu-
sive victory often inspires him TO herald
his triumph in a scream of eXultation.
In the emergencies of flight before
superior enemy, the cougar proves him
self master in the art of doubling" on
his track. On broken ground he will
permit the dog to rush him on a Decline,
Till he reaches a rock or fallen tree that
offers chance of a moments conceal
ment, when he will dash back some thirty
or forty yards and then foil his pursner
by q tremendous side leap. He is en-
phatically herd to corner, and with that
instinct that surpasses all reason will de-
tect chance of escape when the possible
ity of blockade-running would seem to
have been thoroughly obviated.
On the second evening of "a two days
circle hunt a resident of Culiacan, the
commercial metropolis of Sinaloa, sue
ceeded in stunning puma by what the
Texans call a ''crease-shot'-a bullet
tearing along the spine and skull without
breaking the damaged bones. Before
Don Cougar could recover they bad him