GETTING HIM HOME. 277 



As I might never kill another, I was very anxious to get this 

 one to camp and skin him there ; so I tried to hoist him on to 

 the mare, but the thing was like a big cat so limp that when 

 I got it up on one side it fell off the other. The skin was so 

 loose that it was very difficult to get a good hold of it, so I 

 had to think of some other way. I could have hauled it to 

 camp tied to my horse's tail, as I had often done with deer, 

 but that would utterly ruin the skin, so I first of all hoisted it 

 up with my lariat to a bough about ten feet above me, and then 

 riding under the bough I gradually lowered the body on to the 

 back of the mare, sitting with my face to the tail, and after 

 binding it firmly to the saddle I tied the fore and hind feet to 

 the stirrups, and by keeping my legs very stiff and my feet 

 much further out than is usual, I managed to get it to camp. I 

 supposed it weighed about two hundred pounds, and the skin 

 measured ten feet from the nose to the tip of the tail when 

 stretched nearly square. I saw a much finer one than this 

 when in British Columbia, which had been killed by an Indian, 

 but it had been very badly skinned and stretched. Mine was 

 a light fawn-colour, whereas his was nearly black, shading off 

 to fawn. Pumas have a most unpleasant cry, which very much, 

 resembles that of some one in agony ; and there are stories of 

 these animals springing on passers by from a tree, but I could 

 not get one of them well authenticated, and do not believe 

 them. 



