3IO The Puma in Southern Nezv 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 of a tawny yellow 

 color. This locality is on the U. S. Militarj^ 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 lovv^er 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 Canon, in the Organ Mountains, 

 as the following cases will show: Mr. Jeff Isaacs, who has a ranch in 

 the canon, has killed twelve of these animals within the past tour 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 canon is a little south of east of Las Cruces, Mr. Isaac's 

 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 i8gi, 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 



