The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1898-09-24

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He seizes his prey by the throat, rare
ly by the haunch or fank as is the
VOLTS habit. 1t is his custom to STAY
the smaller things of his larder-young
deer, sheep, pigs, etc.-with a single
slap of the paw. The paw used is al
ways the right. There are no left
paved cougars. The female has from
one to three kittens at a litter, and the
father will kill the young males unless
fought off. They are brought forth al
most always in caves, though some
times the lying-in occurs under a dead
log in almost impossible chapparal. A
mother who has young to care for be-
comes doubly destructive. The young
begin killing early, capturing large
game for themselves in the fall sue
ceeding birth, but they are clumsy and
foolishly bold. More of them are slain
at this age than at any other. Like
all members Of the cat tribe they are
easily trapped.
individuals of the cougar species diff
fer greatly in size, strength and fe-
rocity, and the one slain last week
was the chief of his clan. He was a
day feeder and did not seem to care
particularly to hide himself. His kills
were made in the open valleys and he
vas seen probably a dozen times. When
interrupted in his work he would re-
tire at a slow trot, carrying his head
six inches lower than his shoulders,
glancing back in anger and switching
his long tail violently from side to
side. More than once he was followed
for some miles by unarmed cowboys,
anxious to find his lair. In every in
stance when the pursuit ceased he
would turn in his tracks and follow
his pursuer back within a mile of the
ranch. He would never return to a
carcass after making one meal. He
seems to have captured his game by
lurking along the brush-lined edges of
the hills and small p~recipices, spring
| ing down upon the animals and reach
ing them in q couple Of bounds, cover
ing, sometimes, twenty-five feet in a
leap.
Invariably his victims were killed by
one mighty right-handed blow deliv-
cred fairly between the ears or horns,
crushing in the skull as If it were
eggshell. Always the shoulders
showed where his claws had given him
a foothold and the sign told plainly
that no animal ever had the chance
to travel more than ten feet with him.
He disposed of the largest steers and
mares without trouble, on one occa-
-. -oolz ara1,, hy CtInnnCC IL - r
four beeves in a day. He was a con-
frmed cattle killer, and it was believed
that he had lot dined on anything
smaller than a black-tailed deer in a
veal. He was the finest hunter that
ever walked on four feet, and when
killed was, for this season of the heat
ed season, remarkably fieshy. Owing
to his boldness and his habit of follow
ing his t~railers, the Mexicans of the
ranches became frightened of him.
They called him Gel Diablo Tordillo,"
or "the Gray Devil and said that lie
was not a lion at all, but an evil spirit.
All cougars, or panthers, are Mexican
lions down here.
"Viejo' was not afraid of him. A
grizzled old hunter, whose body was
SCARED by twenty combats with man
and beast, and whose face, burned
nearly to jet blackness by the fierce
suns, was so marred by smallpox that
peas might have ben placed in the
pits of it, he said that he and Alisan,
the yellow dog, were a match for any
thing in the mountains, cinnamons not
barred. He talked often of what they
would do to the Gray Devil when The
pack was licked into shape. The hunt
began in the early morning. There
had been a rain the night before and
any scent promised to hold. The trail
was struck at the edge of a small val
The cougar had killed a cow there just
after daylight, had eaten out her side
and had strolled back to the hillside.
He had been gone not more than an
hour when the men reached the place,
and the dogs opened at once clamor-
ously. A smart burst of speed fol.
lowed. The Santa Rosa Mountains are
rough riding, but the hunters were
mounted on native ponies which go up
apparently impossible inclines and
jump off cliffs six feet high on to rock
lodges with the agility and carefulness
of the goat.
The trail led over a low range and
down into another valley, where il
turned south for a mile and a half to a
branch of the Sacramento, where the
cougar had slaked his thirst. He had
crossed the stream on a fallen tree
and gone into the hills. A little after
this he must have heard the dogs. be-
cause 500 yards from the creek his
trail changed from the even footmarks
Of an unhurried quarry to the long
shutting trot of his kind, and then to
bounds. Here the dogs left the ren.
The country was such that rapid riding
was impossible. Only "Viejo" spurred
after the bowling pack, which, with
Alisan at its head, poured in a varie-
gated torrent through the hills.
In a little while an increased clamor
was borne back to them. Pressing on
as boldly as they dared, they found
the huntsman in the midst of his fren-
zied hounds at the edge of a small
forest of pecans, which grew in a de-
preston like the bottom of a bowl. Sc
deep was it that the tops of the tall
trees did not reach to the summit OF
the ridges around them. "Viejo'' said
that the cougar, of which he had