The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-04-23

a plum rank greener Qid you? How
ever, If you've got any sense, reckon
you can see that you wasn't so smart
after all. Whenever any of your tribe
can get such coarse play in on old Lem
just you let him know" and then, add
ing few Of his most select explosives,
he sSnt a slug crashing into the brain
of the treacherous and cunning beast,
terminating his career on the instant
Although the cougar usually lies in
wait, when pressed by hunger he will
not scruple to chase down his prey, and
the prodigious bounds he will sometimes
make in the attempts is something
wonderful An adventure showing
phase of cougar tactics somewhat diff
ferent from the foregoing happened to
q couple of gentlemen who CHANGED to
meet few years ago on spur of the
Blue mountains in Grant county, Or
Each of the parties was in search of
mineral indications" on high south
ern slope, dotted here and there with
scraggy, ill-shaped pines, jumper and
mountain mahogany. Half way to the
summit of the hill was a little beach
of perhaps two acres in extent, where
the mahogany, growing to a hight of
s or 10 feet, formed thicket which in
places was next to impenetrable A
few hundreds yards from this bench
one of the parties discovered the half
devoured remains of a large buck,
which very evidently had been but re-
Gently slain. A little further on he fell
in with the other gold hunter, who, be-
sides prospecting pick, carried a hea-
wy rifle, and was accompanied by a
pair of dogs The circumstances of
finding the carcass of the buck was
mentioned and on comparing notes, it
was soon decided to be the work of
cougars. and" remarked the man
with the gun, "I'll wager the rascals
are in yander mahogany thicket, for
my dogs behaved in a very strange
manner in passing 1t. I'll tell you what
I will do" he proposed: you take my
gun and go to the head of that little
ravine just below. It's a natural run
way, and I will go in with the dogs
and endeavor to drive the varmints
out" mo" replied the other, you
take the stand and will encourage
the dogs" Agreed" said the first
speaker.
Accordingly one of the parties sta
for getting a shot, while the other en-
tered the thicket armed only with a
light prospecting pick, being COM
bined pick and biologists hammer. The
dogs, finding themselves ably seconded
and vociferously encouraged, were soon
barking furiously and chasing here and
there in hot pursuit Of something.
Presently the report of the gun sound
ed, followed by the man stationed be-
low calling out, "They are cougars sure
enough! / got one, but watch out!
There's another, and he is going back
toward you," whereupon the man in
the thicket climbed on to a low ledge
of rocks, which was yet high enough
to furnish a good view of the situation,
and the performance that then met his
gaze was one long to be remembered.
The remaining cougar, terrified and en-
ragged at the incessant barking and
harassing attention of the dogs, was
maintaining himself in the air by a
series of bounds that were truly Won
derful. Literally spurning the earth
with all four feet at once, he would rise
easily above the surrounding shrubbery
and by a peculiar propulsive movement
of his powerful limbs remain station
airy for few moments; then be, with
claws and legs extended to the utmost,
would dart off apparently in any di-
rection he chose, clawing the air as he
went like playful kitten toying with
a hall of yarn.
1t was plain that the dogs would
have Jared badly could he but have
come at them, but on account of the
brush he was at great disadvantage
in coping with his nimble tormentors,
being unable to leap to any distance
except upward.
Perhaps fortunately for the man on
the rock, after few minutes of this
interesting kitten play, the agile beast
set off around the hillside, pursued by
| the dogs at full cry, and very soon ran
up a tree. taking position on q pro-
| jecting branch 40 feet or whereabouts
| from the ground, and from which it
| took two or three well-directed shots
| to dislodge him.
| Subsequently careful tracking and
| investigation on the part of the pros
| pectors, who, like all Of their class,
| were in the habit of sitting things to
| the bottom, disclosed the fact that the
| slaughtered buck had been Jumped
| near the tree in which the last cougar
| met his doom; that he had bounded
| straight down the hill, at this particu-
lar point 20 per cent. incline. until a
projecting reef of rock compelled him
to swerve slightly to the right; that his
pursuers. the cougars, had kept pace
with him, one on either side, In series
of leaps Of nearly invariably % feet in
the clear, and that when the fleeing
terrified animal had of necessity turned
aside, the pursuing flend on that side
had, at one mighty bound, struck him
to earth.-San Francisco Chronicle.
| THE AUSTRIAN CROWN,
| The Neues Weiner Tagblatt learns
that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand