The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-02-01

When the door was opened the coil of
rope was found hanging 10 a stave of a
broken barrel, but the wearer of the badge
had vanished, though his footprints could
be seen here and there in the dust of the
rubblsh-covered floor. Could he have
found hiding-place under one of piles
OF gunny-bags in the loft of the building?
Dogs were introduced, but rushed to and
fro in bewildering way, till boy
discovered the deserter couched fiat on
cross beam, only few feet below the
ridge of the loft. Shouting and rafting
failed to dislouge the refugee. He chung
to his perch, only slightly shifting his
position as the crowd surged to one or the
other side of the building, till bullet
knocked the splinters out of the cross
beam within an inch of his nose. There
was no resisting such an argument, but
from the moment the desperate left his
vantage ground he seemed to realize the
fact that his chance OF survival depended
on the rapidity of his motions. Up and
down and all across the network OF roof
timber he dashed with flying leaps
amidst a constant fusillade, but just
when d detachment of picked sharp
tried a spring at the weatherboard of an
old louvre and made his escape across
the roof of a side building. The picket
posts in the next alley had heard the
warning shout, but only got a glimpse of
the fugitive as he leaped from the gable
to the crane of the warehouse and onto
lower roof, but the next second he had
disappeared round the corner, and the
evening twilight being by that time
pretty near dusk, the pursuit was re-
Hnquished as hopeless.
The California cowboys lasso coyotes
and even bears, to drag them TO death,
"a ~ i,rN,- IsNre NsN
keep them ahead OF the snarling captive
at the other end of the rope, but only
Mexican experts are apt to attempt that
feat with fuIl-grown puma. A single
spring from the end OF a twenty-foot
tether would land him on horseback. if
not on the back of the would-be captor
but that risk can occasionally be fore
stalled by the cooperation OF two accom-
plished enta=dderoS, one of whom gallops
ahead, while the other lags back long
enough to stretch the coils OF his lariat by
a pull IN the opposite direction-the first
simultaneous tightening OF the ropes
being followed by the crack of broken
vertebrse.
Young pumas are, however, often
caught alive, and, like the cubs of other
big cats, make pretty pets during the
hrst ten months of their kittenhood.
Alter the completion of a year or so of
rather demonstrative loyalty they are
very apt to enact declaration of indie
pendence on the slightest provocation,
though after a weeks outing they may
resume a show of diplomatic relations
with their former protector or continue
to make his ranch the headquarters of
their predatory expeditions.
In The yard of a wayside tavern near
Bayamena l saw pet puma, who had
been cured of sneep stealing by being re-
peatedly thrashed within the last inch of
IN inn
up painful of milk and water with
resignation partly explained by the
swollen appearance of his jaw. AT his
masters bidding he would turn over on
his back and, permit himself to be
scratched and rolled about like pug dog,
and even avert his head and half close
his eyes, to mitigate force of temptation,
when piece of roast fowl had been depos-
tied, after a prohibitory comment, with
in easy reach of his claws. AT such times
he seemed to deserve all the privileges of
model Watchdog, though in the even
ing, he now and then reawakened sus-
plcion by proving about the hen-house
with the sleek furtiveness OF Philadel-
pnia Alderman.
There is no doubt that children, and
even armed hunters, have occasionally
been attacked and killed by pumas and
IN Western Mexico travellers may have
often been puzzled by the assertion that
mountain lions become aggressive at
sight OF traprer or ieOnerO Ia puma
scalp hunter out will let inoffensive
mortals pass in peace. From the wary
disposition of the Feds concolo1 the re-
verse might seem more plausible, but
the apparent paradox may be explained
by the circumstance that all the larger
cats become dangerous during the minor
lty of their kittens, and that the puma
nurses her young in the Businesses of the
highlands and other out-of-the-way To-
calities likely to be invaded only by hunt
ers on special exploring trips.
Like Lafontaine's country mouse. the
puma. as rule, prefers safety and mod
est competence to an abundance of richer
food. Well armed stock-tarmers are not
apt to be molested while the mountains
are stocked with game, and a much
hunted old male often retires to the sum-
nit regions of the Sierra Madre, where
he subsists upon rodents, or starves for
weeks, like Texas temperance editor.
before he will venture to revisit the foot
hills. In that way the wary cougar has
extended his habitat from British Column
bia to Southern Chile--a range of nearly
1000 miles north and south, by at least
5000 east and west, for the mountain lion
is found both in Peru and in the sierras
of Eastern Brazil The swamps of the
equatorial river valleys donot agree with
his predictions, and north of the ella
he is gradually disappearing before the
advance of truck farm civilizations; but
at the borders OF the northern temperate
zone, in the wood sheltered cave region
of the Mexican highlands, the puma will
probably survive after both the panther
and the grizzly bear have followed the
American bison to the happy hunting
grounds.