The Last of the Plainsmen 



slope where a man could hardly walk? Only one 

 answer seemed feasible. The lion had made his kill 

 one thousand feet above, had pulled his quarry to 

 the rim and pushed it over. In view of the theory 

 that he might have had to drag his victim from the 

 forest, and that very seldom two lions worked 

 together, the fact of the location of the bones was 

 startling. Skulls of wild horses and deer, antlers 

 and countless bones, all crushed into shapelessness, 

 furnished indubitable proof that the carcasses had 

 fallen from a great height. Most remarkable of all 

 was the skeleton of a cougar lying across that of a 

 horse. I believed I could not help but believe that 

 the cougar had fallen with his last victim. 



Not many rods beyond the lion den, the rim wall 

 split into towers, crags and pinnacles. I thought I 

 had found my pipe organ, and began to climb toward 

 a narrow opening in the rim. But I lost it. The 

 extraordinarily cut-up condition of the wall made 

 holding to one direction impossible. Soon I realized 

 I was lost in a labyrinth. I tried to find my way 

 down again, but the best I could do was to reach the 

 verge of a cliff, from which I could see the canon. 

 Then I knew where I was, yet I did not know, so I 

 plodded wearily back. Many a blind cleft did I 

 ascend in the maze of crags. I could hardly crawl 

 along, still I kept at it, for the place was conducive 



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