The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-12
CHASED BY A COUGAR.

w AAVil IlS LilGd lO Ris'hC iAl9 iI9NStpN By Flight, and Crouching Close Be- hind Him When He Walked His Horse
 The only indigenous long-tailed cat in America north of the thirtieth par allel of latitude is the cougar The wildcats, called, are lynxes with short tails, and of these there are three distinct species. But there is only one true representative of the genus felis, and that is the animal first above men, tioned. It has received many trivial appellations. Among the early Amegi- can trappers and hunters east of the Mississippi river he Is called the pan ther, or, in their patois, painter; in the Rocky mountains and California, the California lion,"
 There are few wild animals so reg ular in their color as the cougar; very little variety has been observed among many specimens, The cougar of ma ture age is of a tawny red color all most uniform over the whole body, though somewhat paler about the face and the partsh underneath. Though considered the representative of tho lion in America, his resemblance to the royal beast is but slight; his color alone entities him to such an honor.
 He is a tree climber. He can mount a tree with the agility of cat, and al- though so large an animal, he climbs by means of his claws, not by hug ging, after the manner of the beans and oppossums. While climbing a tree his claws can be heard cracking along the bark as he mounts upward. He sometimes lies squat along a horizon tai branch, lower one, for the pur- pose of springing upon deer or such other animal as he wishes to feed up- on. The ledge of cliff is also fa- vorite haunt, and such are known among old hunters as panther ledg- es"
 The Cascade range and every tribu- tary chain of mountains on the vast Pacific slope was the habitat of the cougar os mountain Hon. as everybody out there called the ferocious beast The cougar rarely ventured out of the great forests, however the deer and mountain sheep furnishing them their general food.
 Tn 1867 I was stationed at Fort Sim COG, in the valley of the same name in then Washington territory. One after noon in June of the year mentioned I started for Fort Dalles, sixty-five miles river.
 There were no wagon roads in those early days. Everything had to be car ried on pack mules, because of the rough, rocky and precipitous character of the country. The majority of the mule trails were what are called zig gags" that is, angling from right to left up the steep sides of the noun tains, it being impossible to make the ascent by going straight up their scarped faces.
 I mounted my beautiful coal black mare, Peta1uma one of those strong milan ponies famous for their endur- ance and ability to climb the fearful, narrow pathways only by which com munication was between points made possible.
 I left the post without carrying any arms, not even a revolver, a careless habit of mine, for which I was repri- manded more than once by my com manding officer, but one becomes in different to constant danger in a wild country, and I never was cured of the fault I reached the foot Of the first t'zig-zag'' at the west side of the val ley where it juts against the range oi mountains about sundown, and before essaying the ascent, dismounted an6 cinched my saddle. In little more than three hours I arrived at the sum- init, making frequent halts to wind my e.. l-l- |. 1.r- lz1 l. struggling up the grade.
 When I started on again, after rest. ing twenty or thirty minutes, the moor which was at its full, now apeared al the verge of the horizon way below me at the lower end of the valley, anG began to light up the trail on the sim init of the range, so that in the clear cloudless sky, objects were as dis tinctly visible as at monday, though the atmosphere and all nature seemed tinged with a silver sheen.
 The trail on the summit of the range ran over a narrow tableland for sev eral miles, and then entered the deel pine and cedar forest at the other ex tremity of the chain of great hills ovel which I was going. A ride of twelv' miles further and I arrived at 8 lonely spot, entirely denuded of timber, ex cepting group of blasted cedars abou an acre in extent. There, a few months before, A. J. Bolen had been most bru tally murdered by the Yakimas, whos' special agent he was. He was shot il the back by relative of the chief Kam-i-a-kin, who then cut his throat killed his horse and burned both bod ies together with whatever other prop erty was attached to either
 The trail ran right through the ac cursed place, but the Indians them selves, after their crime, always super stitious, made a detour of some mile out of it's way. The whites, however still travelled the older and mucl shorter route I arrived there just a my watch indicated midnight. Seat ing myself on one of the granit boulders scattered over the ground after cinching up my saddle again, lighted my pipe and was about to en joy the delightful fragrance of som tobacco which had been given to m the day before by an officer lately ar rived from the states, when my mare which I was holding by the rein, gav a convulsive shudder and nearly brok away from me. I could not divin what had caused her trepidation, fo when with me, although most high