The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-23

New York Press.)
The mountain lion is very fond of big
Wilson of the Powder river foothills. out
in Montana, ''and the mountain lion can
not he blamed for that, for | want to
tell you that big horn sheep mutton is
good, particularly when 1t is leeky.
What's leeky? Why, leek.!
High up pm the mountains where the
big horn crops it's living a very percept-
IDLE vegetable comes up in the spring,
When | say very p1reeptibe don't mean
that this plant particularly obtrusive
to the eye. / mean that 1t is very per-
ceptible to your Use. 1t $ a wild onion.
otherwise a leek You can smell 1t III
the air. and Il Just Ike your girl $
breath in the n " onion season the night
she didn't know YOU were coming.
THE big horn sheep just dotes ON these
leeks, and eats EN- and eats EN-. What
happens? The meat gets eooked full OF
the flavor of EN-, and / tell you that
when you put your teeth into a hunk OF
big horn mutton that's leeky you've got
pretty near mouthfu that can't be
beat. That's what leeky is.
"Well, the mountain lion is fond of big
horn mutton. | don't know whether he
likes il any better when it's leeky than
he does when il isn't, and that's got
nothing to do with this case. anyhow.
The big horn, which is about the shyest
and smartest thing that pastures among
the Rockies. knows all about this fond
ness of the mountain lion for its mutton,
end so il selects its pasturing places with
due regard to the possibility of some sly
lion trying to get his claws on it,
Whenever you see big horn, or a
number of big horns, shipping the bunch
grass on the lofty places where they love
TO feed, and shifting now and then IN
the air, this way and that way, you can
make up your mind that at convenient
spot i'm that high-up pasture there is one
of the splits in the mountain that are
common In that country, and which open
straight up and down from the bottom
to the top. some of EN- being more than
900 feet deep, with Jagged sides to their
walls. which are frequently not more
than fifty feet apart.
"Those splits are gateways of escape
that the big horn makes for the moment
1t discovers the scent of mountain lion
or other enemy in the air. The agile
sheep trips as lightly down the sides OF
the splits as If It were going down safe
and regular stairs leaping from one side
to the other until II lands at the bottom,
with the lion. cheated out of his mutton,
glazing down at IL from he TOP. The
big horn is just as shy Of hunters as II
is of mountain lion, and you have 10
work all sorts of tricks and stratageRs to
get a shot at one.
lone day L thought | would play A
smart game on a big horn and bag him
sure. I knew there was a mountain lion
over on one side Of sheen feeding place
those deep and narrow splits in the
mountain 1t occurred to me that mors
than likely the lion would como on raid
and send the sheep that might be feed
ing there on the double-quick for that
opening II go down stairs. So I sneaked
over there and lay in ambush on the far
side of the split. waiting for the chance
OF the lion driving a big horn my way.
what ] intended to do was to knock
over the sheep before 1t had chance &c
start on it's trip down the opening, and
then shoot the lion, so ] could go around
and get my game. My scheme would