Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1897-06-11
THE MOUNTAIN LION.
TIMES WHEN THIS USUALLY TlMiD
BEAST WILL ATTACK "A MAN.
Two Instances Related by IN Old Hunter
and. !. Prospcctor-Ferocity Aroused BY
Hunger-A Tragedy I'm tho Foothills Of
the Sierra Nevada. H. ~. -..s HF.

!.
!. Hunger--A Tragedy In tho Foothills Of
| the Sierra Nevadaa. ~ a Vii
"As q rule the mountain lion Is shy
! beast, which retreats from the presence of
man and rarely will attack him even when
wounded" said A. H. Davis. formerly q
prospector and hunter on the Pacific slope.
II havo brought one down from tree
! with bullet, and on striking the ground,
I, Instead Of showing fight, the creature tried
| TO crawl away to escape. Owing to the
| acuteness of its senses the mountain lion
F, is usually forewarned of tho approach of
man In time to take itself out OF the way
unseen, and when confronted with hu
mainly In the wilds it often displays a sim
gular confidence and galtlenoss. But there
| are two conditions which completely
change tho mountain lion's ordinary dis
position toward man and render this AMI
| NAL his inveterate and dangerous foe.
| The ono IL tho approach Of man toward a
female lion with cubs; the other Is when
| tho lion Ia half 1alnished and fierce WITH
hunger. At such times the lion s fear and
| tolerance Of mankind alike vanish, and it
does not hesitate to attack him, oven when
tho odds seem greatly against It's success.
| Then it's innate ferocity, strength and
| agility backed by it's terrible equipment
.of teeth and claws, make 1t truly forni
|'lable enemy.
Sin 20 years. hunting and prospecting
| along the Sierra Nevada and Cascade
ranges l have personally known of ill.,
| stances in which the mountain lion at
| tackled man without provocution, and In
each Of these instances 1t appeared to have
| done SO because Of hunger. che first was
many years ago in Oregon. Two men
were driving u herd Of hogs from the In
terror toward the coast when, while pass
| ing through wild canyon, hugo noun
| tain lion sprang from u tree upon the
shoulders of the foremost man and tried
| to tear his throat. 1t being cold weather
| tho man had IN oyercout of California
overalls stuff, us strong almost as canvas,
| with tho wide collar turned up about his
ears, and this saved his neck from tho
lions teeth Tho other man had no fire.
| arms, but he ran to his compartments aid
with the long black snake whip used In
herding. A blow from the long lash of
| such a whip in the hands Of u man who
can use 1t cuts through hair and skin like
| knife. and with his black snake he whip
! ped the lion till it dropped from the mans
shoulders and reiterated. The drovcrs took
their herd along to the next town, where
they told their story, and u party Of hunt
| ers went out next day and found and
killed tho lion, which measured 10 feet
from nose to tail. This Is u foot longer
than any mountain lion I have ever seen,
but tho statement Us to it's length WAS
made to mo on excellent authority, and /
| do not doubt its truth.
".rhe worst instance knew Of noun
| <c{, 4, I'M 0toHi
tragedy. A party of five Of us were In tho
! Sierra Nevadus In November hunting.
The peaks were already white with snow,
and every snowfall drove the deor farther
down into the valleys which were our
| hunting grounds Deer were scarce that
year, and for that reason all the carnivo-
| rous animals that prey on them were un-
| usually bold and hungry, and the ranoh-
men already wero complaining of losses Of
| stock through bears and wolves There
came morning with light snow, fallen
tho night BEFORE just deep enough to track
a deer in we'll, and three of lis set out
among tho foothills in tho morning. One
of our three was young fellow named
Tillman not long out of college.
"In the course Of the day we got sepa-
rated. About the middle of the afternoon
my partner, Ferguson, and I came togeth.
or, but Tillman did not turn up. Fearing
he might have got lost, We went In search
of him. We came at last upon his tracks,
and following them up, we came, just at
dusk, upon Till,nan lying lifelcss in the
snow, his throat torn and his clothes part
" stripped from his body. We at first
thought 1t was the work Of a bear, but the
| tracks in the snow showed 1t to have been
q mountain lion, which had leaped upon
him from q thioket of mountain cedar.
| The fact that Tillman's rifle had not been
discharged showed that tho lion had been
the aggrcssor. After killing this young
man and tapping his blood the lion had
dragged some brushwood over him and
gone away. 1t was a startling sight to
come suddenly on, and after we had laid
poor Tillman's body out In decent shape
Ferguson and stood looking at each 9TH
er undecided what we'd better do next.
"'It's five good miles to camp and no
trail. We never can carry him there to-
night Ferguson said at last I'll stay
here and watch the body II you'll 60 to
camp tonight and fetch the rest of the boys
out first thing in the morning.
$50 I gave Ferguson what grub was In
my haversack and matches and the AZ
and started for camp, leaving him quitting
i WOOU 1OE b AIos AO0 w ooAnP "sA AA6"s
before midnight, and told tho boys what
had happened, and next morning at earli-
est daylight we were on the move for the
scene Of the tragedy. When We got there,
Ferguson was sitting by the fire, with TILL
man lying there stark and stiff on the
around with handkerchief over bis face.
After we had talked q bit Ferguson point
cd out to us an opening In the bushes 20
yards away.
"'There's tho murderer he said. II
was q mountain lion lying dead with q
bullet hole In its forehead. 1t was big
and terrible looking brute, gaunt and lean,
a. II 1t bad been near starvation before the
bullet knocked 1t over.
"I was looking for him to come, said
Ferguson. He came before midnight
providing about the camp. The fire kept
him back for awhile, but he kept coming
nearer until at last got fair chance to
aim by his eyes. One shot settled him. II
Il hadn't
swell, IL did not mead be snid what
might have happened II the shot had mere