The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-01
FIGHT WITH A LYNX
A Thrilling Experience in a De-
serted Cabin.
LOST IN THE HILLS
Pete Casper Found an Undesirable Com
panion in q SHAFT House In Which
He Was Obliged to Take
Refuge.

Pete Casper came in yesterday from
upper Basin gulch and related an exper-
fence OF the night before which must
a been thrilling IL nothing else. Pete
lives over the hill on Moose creek and
left home Friday noon for Butte. He
intended making camp Friday night
with a friend who lives near the head
Of Basin. He took his rifle with him,
and when a few miles from home ne
saw deer tracks. He followed them I'M
til nearly dark. Then he looked around
to find his bearings so that he could
reach his friends cabin before dark.
OF he started over the sparsely wooded
hills. He lost his bearings again, but
IL was now dark and the only thing he
thought he could do was to go to a log
shanty neal by and under its shelter
pass the night. which. by the way. was
shivering cold. No did he reach
u than he found that he was in an old
shaft house. The wooden a rails.
windlass and other unused shaft house
equipment were there on all sides. He
crouched i'm one corner of the room and
imagined that he was in a warm place.
but he wasn't. The wind whistled
through the cracks and before Pete had
been there 10 minutes he knew that he
was not warm. He struck a match and
saw standing up against the wall near
him the dilapidated door of the shaft
house. 1t had evidently been torn or
blown down by some n thrown
up against the wall. He decided to put
II up to the opening in order to keep
some of the wind out of the cabin. No
sooner had he moved the door than
there was a commotion-a crash, a flash
and a howl.
Pete jumped back. stumbled over a
rock and fell sprawling on the ground,
his arms clinging around one of the
windlass uprights. A little further and
he would ave had a drop of 40 feet
down the shaft. Frightened almost out
of his senses, he imagined that he saw
two balls of fire as big as his hat about
three feet distant. Then he saw them
move to one side and then he knew that
he was in for IL. 1t was a lynx N no
mistake. He lay where he fell, not even
breathing. so he said. for fear of adding
to the wrath of the surprised beast. The
lynx walked around the shaft half a
dozen times, occasionally pausing as III
to make dash for it's strange intruder.
Finally Pete saw the form glide through
the doorway and disappear over the
dump. He sprang for his gun, which
he left standing in the corner when he
started to remove the door, and follow
ed the animal: but the lynx wasn't to
be seen. The night was clear and the
snow on the ground added to the
brightness of the surroundings. Pete
was now warm and didn't care whether
the wind whistled through the cracks
In the cabin or not. He was willing to
turn the cabin over TO all the bears inc
wildcats I'm the mountains. So he started
of over the hill and was beginning to
figure out where he has at when 20 feet
I'm front of him were those same two
balls of fire which had turned his hair
gray I'm the old shaft house. Pete raised
his gun and the cat lowered his colors.
II was a center fire, and when Pete ar
rived at his friends house at daylight
yesterday morning he carried with him
a 7%5-pound lynx. He proposes TO nave IL
mounted by a taxldermist and keep IL
as a souvenir of his midnight experience
i'm the shaft house.
Mr.. Casper will remain i'm town over
New Years. He is drifting in what he
considers very good ground. He intends
to work his placers next season on a
more extensive scale. He also says that
he anticipates quite In active season In
the gulch next summer.