The record-union., 1896-11-08
MOUNTAIN LIONS.
Some Stories From Colorado Con.
Cerning Them

|
corning Them.
There is a good deal of humhup I'm
! these stories about the Colorado mount
ain lion said Sam Van Horn of West
Las Animas yesterday Il read vester-
| day a story about q lion which two men
found had got into their cabin through
an open window, and knocked one of
them down in jumping out when sur
prised by their return. Now up to that
point the story is all right. for the Colo
rado puma is as big a thief as there Is,
/ in the animal kingdom, but then the
story goes on to say that after knock
ing one man down it sprang at the other
and shook him by his coat. | don't he
lieve a word of it, for the beast is the
most cowardly of all the cat family of
Colorado. would a hundred times pre-
! fer to meet a mountain lion than one of
! the bob-tailed cats that we have down
along the Arkansas River. l don't
mean to say that the puma won't fight,
but before doing so it has TO be eornered.
| If the track is clear, it will always run
| from a man. Some animals will fight
when surprised, but 1 never knew q
puma TO do SO. They will always get
away if they have a clear course. But
when they do have to fight in order to
| get away they are ugly customers, I
can tell you. They make one charge
with teeth and claws and are gone in a
| flash, but they can do horrible damage
| in passing over one.
One day in riding up one of the cam
yons of the Purgatoire River l saw a
small herd of cattle rushing wildly down
the canyon. The herd parted as they
came up TO me, and in front and not
| twenty feet distant was a puma which
| had been in hot pursuit until L APP
| peared on the scene. The puma is fond
of horseflesh, and horses stand in mortal
terror of them. My horse shivered with
fear, and the beast after standing for an
instant perfectly still turned and went
up the sides of the canyon in great
bounds, only stopping when it had
reached q rocky perch from whence it
could watch my movements with safety.
/ One day tramp who had been in my
camp two or three days started for
| Trinidad from Purgatoire River In
| stead of taking the plain river road he
went across the roughest country in
creation, disregarding our advice, for
we expected nothing but that we would
| have to search for him or take the re-
sponsibility of his death. He left early
| in the morning. and soon after noon,
when we were all enjoying our after
dinner nap, he came in with a rush that
| brought every one to his feet in an in
stant. The fellow was breathless with
running, and as soon as he' could re-
cover his speech he told us that he had
| apeff
dered in a circle and a short time bee
fore had stumbled upon the big spring
where we got our water. Recognizing
the locality, he stopped to drink and as
he did so, he saw reflected in the pool
the figure of a mountain lion as big as a
cow. He didn't wait to investigate, and
broke the record as he came down to
the camp. OF course we laughed at
him, and affected not to believe that he
had seen anything bigger than a jack
rabbit, but he stuck to his story, and
finally asserted that there was not
man in the camp that dared go UP to
| investigate. This could not be permit
! ted to pass, and L at once seized, the
! buckets and started. The spring was a
quarter of a mile away, and long before
reached there / had forgotten all about
mountain lions. You can judge of my
! surprise, as bending over to fill my
| bucket I saw in the pool the reflection
| of large puma with the water drip
| ping from his muZzle. l will not say
that 1 was not frightened, but the beast
was as badly frightened as 1, for as l
raised up my head, threw up my arms
and uttered a yell like one of Governor
| Brush's cattle yells, the animal whirled
and sprang fully twenty feet at the first
jump and disappeared in an instant. In
twenty years in the mountains l have
| never come suddenly upon a mountain
lion that did not get away as rapidly
as possible.-Denver Republican.