310 The Puma in Southern New Mexico. | ZOE 
upper road, at a point less than three miles from and to the south of 
the fort, just after sundown, a puma was seen to spring up from the 
side of the road, a short distance ahead of the team. This point was 
not far from a draw containing timber. A shot was fired, which 
probably grazed the animal’s back, for with a low yelp he made off 
down the wooded draw. The animal was estimated to be about 
three feet long, not including tail, and probably two and one-half feet 
high, and was doubtless not fully grown. He was ofa tawny yellow 
color. This locality ison the U.S. Military Reservation at Fort 
Stanton, in Lincoln County. Some persons who came into Fort 
Stanton a day or two later on the lower road, reported seeing a puma 
the following night after the above one was seen. The lower road is 
about a mile west of the upper one at this point, running more or 
less parallel to it, and the wooded draw above mentioned con- 
nects the two roads. This was perhaps the same animal, therefore, 
that was fired at the night before. 
The puma is not rare in Soledad Cafion, in the Organ Mountains, 
as the following cases will show: Mr. Jeff Isaacs, who has a ranch in 
the cafion, has killed twelve of these animals within the past four years. 
They have caused serious depredations among his lambs and colts. 
He tells me that they have killed five colts for him, and also num- 
bers of calves and sheep. The skin of one which he killed with a 
pistol, in the fall of 1889, measured nine feet from end of nose to tip 
of tail. This measurement is vouched for by Mr. W. R. Fall, of this 
place. The cafion is a little south of east of Las Cruces, Mr. Isaac’s Bs 
place being about twenty miles from here. 
Mr. Fall also tells me that Mr. G. R. Beasley, who has a ranch a 
mile or two beyond (east of) Isaac’s ranch in Soledad, killed a puma 
in June, 1892, and says that there are several of these animals now 
alive in that vicinity. 
In regard to the occurrence of the puma on the Upper and Lower 
Penasco, in western Lincoln County, Mr. S. E. Kennedy, of this — 
place and formerly of Tularosa, vouches for the following: The skin 
of a puma killed by a man named Newman, near the head of the 
Penasco Creek, in the fall of 1891, measured eleven feet and some 
inches (three inches?) to tip of tail. Mr. Kennedy vouches for this 
measurement, which he made himself. This skin, therefore, is the 
longest one on record, the measurement of which is reliably vouched 
