The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1895-02-09
TRE FUMA'S FAR Of MAN.
.iow Two Schoo.hoys III Oregon Killed {
Mountain Lion.

iow Two Schoo.hoys il, Oregon Killed {
Mountain Lion.
~ recent letter, describing the ami
mails OF the Patagonian plaius, naTates
some interesting characteristics Of the
puma, or panther, which are well
known to people in regions where he
abounds," said the man from the Rock.
les to New York Sun reporter.
This information, of indisputable
accuracy, upsets some widely spread
fallacies concerning this beast. One
of these, the idea that be regards man
as his natural prey, IS prevalent among
people whose notions of forest beasts
have been formed from exaggerated
stories of the eastern panther, a dread
topic of rural tales and of boys read
ing since the first settler invaded the
North American wilderness.
"The ferociousness Of the pampas
puma toward all other beasts and his
gentleness or fear in respect to man
finds its counterpart in the mountain
lion of the Rocky Mountain and Pa
citic coast ranges. This animal IS
larger beast than his relative OF the
eastern wilderness, there known as the
panther.
"The mountain lion, like the pampas
puma, is terribly destructive to other
wild animals and to young live stock,
but except in romances has never fig
nred as an animal dangerous to man.
Owing to his shyness toward human
beings the mountain lion is rarely seen
by man, though sometimes in mount
ain Businesses camper may hear his
wealing cry to his mate by night, and
perhaps detect signs of his presence
about the camp, which, if pressed by
hunger, he may visit in the hunters
absence and make way with any meat
left carelessly within reach. Like the
South American puma the Mountain
lion is often found upon the plains,
where his presence is soon made known
to ranchers by his ravages among the
colts and calves and sheep. His flesh is
white and many North American hunt
ers, like the bauchos, consider it good
eating.
"The mountain lion cub makes an
attractive pet until he gets so large as
to be formidable in strength. That
point reached, while still amiable to
his master, he becomes unsafe for
strangers to approach, and his fierce
predatory instincts are inevitably dis
played toward animals which are his
natural prey. Until these instincts be-
come manifest, which usually occurs
when the whelp is about a year old, he
is playful and gentle as kitten, and
his soft velvet eyes give no warning Of
latent danger Fhe-e..bo, rs-e,-b burn with
faint marking of bars and spots, which
disappear soon after their eyes get
open.
s'This disinclination of the puma to
attack man is often attributed to cow
ardice, though an animal should hardly
be termed cowardly which will risk
combat with the grizzly bear, as the
pp Ia is known to do.
$3.50 cowardly is the mountain lion,'
said J. B. Treadwen of California, who
has often killed them, that more than
once have shot one in a tree, wound=:
ing him so badly that he fell to the
ground; instead of attacking me he en-
deavored to creep away And an CIe-
gon schoolmaster tells of two boys, pu'
pils of his, who gave one morning as
the cause of their tardineSS that they
had stopped to kill a mountain lion on
their way to school. Atsight of them
the animal had taken to tree, and,
while one boy watched him to see that
lie did not escape, the other went back
home for the gun with which they
killed him"