The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-03-04

BRINGING DOWN A MOUNTAIN LION.
on a trail of blood, says the San Francisco
Call. After a search he found the car
cases of 81 thoroughbred Angoras. The
animals were worth from SIS to $50 each
when alive.
"This was more than I could stand. :"
said Mr.. Conklin a couple of days later.
81 made up my mind that I would not
board any mountain lion on the epicurean
bits of thoroughbred Angora goats.
Before doing anything else 1 drove all
the rest of the herd into the corral, where
they would be safe, and then I called the
boys for a lion hunt. And you can bet we
had one.
"As soon as we let the hounds loose the
hunt began. The trail was easy to follow
over the snow, and we soon reached the
lair of the lions. The first lion that was
routed III was shot without any trouble,
| and so were three others. We just bowled
them over like jack rabbits as they bound
ed out of the lair. Then we got on the
trail of an outside lion, and the real fun
began.
1.-The dogs had scared up a monstrous
fellow, and after following hot On his trail
for a long distance they finally freed him.
/ was in the lead and, as soon as | got close
to the tree, raised my rife and fired. Pat
Whalen also fired, and both bullets went
through the lions body. But the fierce
brute wasn't dead by a good deal.
"Down he dropped, and up he bounded,
and the next instant he was among the
dogs, tearing and ripping them to pieces.
Before / could realize what was hap
pening the lion was jumping at me. I
instinctively dubbed my. rifle and struck
out full force at the big, red mouth with
the outstretehed jaws. / felt its hot
breath in my face, and a deep growl sound
ed just beside my ear.
'I don't know exactly how I managed,
but | turned my head just as the lion
reached me, SO that he struck me on the
shoulder. I was knocked down, and for
an instant I thought my time had come.
"The lion must have thought the knock
down had put me out of the fight, for he
jumped from me at Tom, who was rush.
lug to my help and looking for a chance
for a safe shot in the scrinmage.
81 pulled my hunting knife and jumped
up to help Tom. All the while Pat Wha-
len and Joe stood nea by, waiting to send
q bullet where it would do the most good.
They dared not shoot while we three were
fighting SO close together. The dogs were
close by, biting and snarling at the lion,
but he didn't mind them any more than if
they'd been guinea pigs. The impact of
the lions body bowled Tom over. He fell
on his side and face, and the claws fortu-
nately only ripped up q little flesh. Be-
fore the beast could get in his deadly work
I had my knife in his back.
1.-THE others crowded up to get in q shot
and blow that would tell. 1 guess the can
tankerous old snarling cuss saw he had
the worst ED of the fight, for suddenly he
swung around, knocking me over again
and started 20 run for the underground
above us on the hillside. Dogs and men
took after him pell nell. Bullets did not
seem to have any effect ON him. Besides
the dogs began to regain their courage
she hadn't covered half the distance to
the brush when five other lions popped
out and began to cry and snarl. Up went
the guns, and we began to pump bullets
into them. The dogs began to fall away
from the chase WHEN they caught sight of
the others. That gave us a free shot at
him, and he was quickly laid out.
ssThat seemed to settle the fight, for the
two live lions disappeared into the brush
before we could get a crack at them.
1.-the big one that came near making an
end of both Tom and me was one of the
largest ions ever seen in this section. He
measured nine feet from tip to tip and
weighed 24o pounds