The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-30
pUxAs IN DEADLY CONFLICT.
Great Cats That Make nattiinE Fight
 When Evenly Matched.

Great Cats That Make . nattiing Fight
 When Evenly Matched.
 From tho St. Louis diobe-Democratl
 'on our return trip to the coast I saw thrilling incident of life in the South American forest a fight to the death between two big pumas. Those great beasts are fierce, hard fighters at all times against common enemy. but 1t is only during the mating season that the males fight among themselves. and when they do the contest means death to one or both of them. For strength and courage they are the equals of the African lion or the tigers of the Indian jungles,
 We were making our way down narrow wooded ravine in the foothills of the Andes. and had stopped for our midday meal on the bank of small mountain stream of clear water Af- ter we had finished the meal lay down for a short rest, but in less than five minutes was aroused by the most terrific roaring. snapping and snarling of wild beasts had ever heard.
 'Pumas. and there's going to be fight said our guide in whisper It was not difficult to locate the animals. They were not more than one hundred yards away. and by creeping through the brush as quietly as possible We were able to get near enough to see the Uh wit ct hal we caught sight of the two animals they were crouching close to the ground, facing each other. in small space under some large trees. They were the finest specimens of the puma 1 ever saw.
 They were probably thirty feet apart and as they c,,ouched there glaring at each other they looked like giant cats about to spring on their prey. Pugilists never spared with greater caution than did those big brutes.. Their tails were switching back and forth, and their eyes were like balls of fire. Slowly they moved round in circle, all the time cautious ly getting closer and closer together. It was evident that each was waiting for the other to make the first lead. For more than ten minutes they watched and waited. The roaring and snarling we had heard when they first met had ceased. They made no sound now as they watched for a chance to spring.
 Our own nerves were trembling un- der the strain when at last the two great beasts rose in the air at the same instant, and, like catapults, came together with thud that could have been heard two hundred yards away They dropped to the ground, and for almost ten minutes all we could make out was two great brown bodies roll ing over and over in the death strug- gle. They made no outcry of any kind, but every few seconds we could hear their powerful jaws come togetn- CT with a snap like the closing or well-oiled steel trap.
 Finally they began to weaken, ana as their struggles grew less violent we could see that both of them were cov- cred with blood, while their flesh was torn to shreds. In five minutes more the fight was over and the two grants of the forest were stretched out at ruil length Sn the ground, sciasped in each others limbs. just as two playful kit tens sometimes lie down together. They struggled feebly little longer and then both of them lay perfectly still Both were dead when we got to them, and never saw animals so torn to pieces. The entrails of both were torn out and scattered over the ground where they had fought. and in their necks were great ragged holes, from which the blood had flowed in streams while they were still fighting. Ihey each had score of wounds that would have killed any animal with less te- nacity of life"