The Cordova daily times., 1923-04-12


 San Francisco correspondent.
 SAN FRANCISCO, April 12.-Cali- fornia may lose the distinction of em- ploying the only paid '1ion hunter" in the United States.
 In four years past Jay Bruce, the | States official lion killer, has stalked and killed 127 mountain lions. No provision has been made for his re- tention by the new State budget, al though game lovers and live stock owners in the isolated mountain re- gions are rallying to have Bruce's $25 a week salary reinstated in the budget. ''~
 Bruce is not worrying greatly over his future. He has had many offers to act as guide for private parties in- terested in the thrill of lion hunting, but has preferred to continue as State exterminator of the "beasts of the l mountains
 According to statistics compiled by the State Fish and Game Commission, mountain lions annually take huge toll in game and livestock.
 '"rhe 600 lions in the State prob ably kill 30,000 deer each year." Bruce revealed in an interview, GOT twice as many as hunters bag each year. The lions make fresh kill for every meal if possible. Their depredations on livestock may be imagined from the fact that in August, 1919, I killed male lion that had killed 300 goats in one year."
 Bruce pursues his hazardous occupa- tion alone, with the exception of his highly trained dogs, which are his constant companions and which from long training can follow the trail of a mountain lion under almost impos- sible mountain conditions. The latest exploit of Bruce was the killing of Big Jim," a mountain lion which for eight years had been the terror of the Mt Hamilton district, south of here. This mountain outlaw 1 brought the averaging Bruce on his trail when he destroyel twenty head ] of pedigreed stock valued at $2,000. The Santa Clara County Cattlemen's Association reported depredations of | Big Jim" to the State Fish and Game and accompanied by his trio of dogs, and accompanied yhis trio of dogs, Ranger" Scout" and Ely" was as- signed to the task of bringing in the dead body of the killer. Fifteen miles southeast of Mt. Hamilton" said Bruce, "the trail was | located I followed it for six miles, | when rain fell and obliterated the marks.
 "Two days after the rain l again picked up tracks, and while following it there over rough, brush-covered can- yons and ridges, trailed and shot two lionesses, on weighing eighty-five ! pounds and the other seventy-eight.
 "'Big Jim made a kill and disap- peared for several days, but on the morning of February 23 I again dis covered the trail. A five-hour chase ensued, the animal crossing three 1,00- feet deep canyons.
 '"Then the dogs brought the animal to bay on limb of a large live oak tree on the east side of Coyote Creek. When I arrived on the scene a few seconds later the lion was crouched on limb forty feet above ground. A patch of the animals chest showed through the concealing foliage.
 q tied my dogs to a tree to prevent them from charging on the lion when it fell I stood directly under the lion and shot upward.
 "The wounded beast plunged to the spot where I had stood a moment be- fore. Seeking escape, the animal lunged toward the creek and disap' peared. I followed. I trailed the lion for 100 yards, to find it hiding on a rock bluff.
 'T worked my way into an open top tunnel and approached the source of splitting growls. Peering around a ledge of rock I looked into green eyes and snarling jaws of the animal It raised it's huge paw to strike as shot The bullet struck the lion between the eyes,"
 The lion was seven feet long and weighed 150 pounds, an unusually large specimen.