The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-03
AN ARIZONA WILD MAN.

AN ARIZONA WILD MAN.
 Many strange stories have been told
 Of the wild man" of the Grand Canon
 Of the Colorado. and while some per-
 sons have credited these weird tales, | they have for the most part been re- garded as the ingenious inventions of
 imaginative travellers, and have passed | into tradition as such. But according | to l. w.. Stevens of Cedar, Col, the wild man" is not myth, and he gives
 thrilling account of an encounter he had with the creature. Two years ago." says MT. Stevens,
 T had business in the northwestern part of Arizona that took me in the
 neighbormood of the extreme lower end of the Grand Canon of the Colorado | river, in Mohave county Ari Having | the misfortune of getting my arm bro I ken, l took a trip to the river to kill time and catch a few beaver. I con- structed skiff, with the air of a friend,
 and when my arm got strong enough I ! took a trip up the canon as far as I
 could go with boat A few miles above the entrance I hauled my boat
 upon the sand and got ready to exam inc the rock walls. '~"
 "The first thing that attracted my attention was the imprint of bare feet
 in the sand. Thinking the tracks had
 been made by some Indian, perhaps a
 Flute or Hanlipi. began looking the gorge over with much interest. Going | down stream a short distance I found | moreltraeks. t t'i s: .a The third day of my stay saw the head of man on bench of rocks on the north side of the river. Evidently | he was seated on the edge of a cliff | some distance above my camp. I | roWed up stream a little above the point where saw the mans head and part of his shoulders above the grease
 wood brush. Climbing up to the bench, I had some difficulty in finding a place
 that could get over. the ledge and be
 on level with my strange neighbor T finally succeeded in approaching, close to the point. saw sitting on a large boulder man with long white hair and a matted beard that reached to his knees. The creature was una ware of my approach and gazed upon him for some moments unobserved He was about fifty yards away and in full view. He wore no clothing, and
 upon his talon-like fingers were claws
 at least two inches long, . A coat of gray hair nearly covered his body, with here and there a spot of dirty skin showingA had found the wild man of the rocks! st
 At that moment a rock loosened by some animal came rolling down. The
 creature turned his face towards me.
 Horrors! What a face--it was scared
 and burned brown by the sun, with fiery green eyes. With a wild whoop
 and leap he was off up over rocks
 and cliffs like a mountain sheep for about seventy-five yards. Then he stopped. He was armed with queer shaped club, large enough to fell an OK. Brandishing this bludgeon, he shrieked and chattered for a moment, then started towards me, roaring and still flourishing his weapon. Faster and faster he came, and my hair began to
 stiffen.
 q am a poor runner, so I stood my
 ground. When the creature was with in about fifteen yards of me I raised my rife to fire, thinking to cripple him. As I glanced along the barrel I heard a deep growl just above the wild man. Looking up I saw a she cougar and two half-grown cubs. The mother cou-
 gar crouched, with tail flashing, ready to spring on the wild man. He also heard the growI, and he braced himself
 for the shock. ,~..
 'I drew hasty bead on the cougar and pressed the trigger. When the smoke had cleared away the mother
 cougar lay read where the wild man
 had stood. The man himself had dis
 appeared. The two young cougars
 were still on the rock, apparently
 greatly frightened by the report and
 echoes oe my Sharp rifle.
 Reaching hastily for a cartridge I found I had neglected to buckle on my
 belt when leaving camp, so I hastily
 retreated to the boat, where I found everything as I had left it. I showed the boat off and drifted towards camp,
 which was near the cougars. There lay the old cougar where she had fal- len. The wild man was standing over the two cubs, which were also read, he having beaten the life out of them with his club. He stood for a moment gaz- ing on the carcasses, then got down on his hands and knees and drank the warm blood as it flowedfrom the death wounds The sight sickened me.
 ''I stood up in the boat and yelled. The man sprang to his feet took a long look at me, then fled up from ledge to ledge until he reached the fourth ledge, where he stopped. Here he f1ourished his club again and screamed the wild est, most unearthly screech ever heard, then turned and sprang onward up the craggy wall of the canon.
 Not fancying my wild neighbor. I packed my outfit into the boat and
 drifted down and out of the canon be- fore made camp for the night. That was the strangest adventure of my