Okanagan 



Feeling sure that the beast had taken the meat 

 this way, I mounted my cayuse (the Indian 

 name for horse) and rode along at the foot of 

 the mountain until I eventually found the spoor 

 again, the trail going into the mountain. The 

 tracking was easy here on account of the snow. 

 The beast had picked up the meat in its mouth, 

 travelling as much as three or four hundred 

 yards or more before putting it down. Here the 

 imprint of the haunch, which weighed quite 

 twenty pounds, distinctly showed in the snow, 

 so I trailed for more than an hour. The puma, 

 for I was sure it was one of these animals from 

 its tracks, was evidently making for its den. 

 I hoped that it might have eaten a portion of the 

 meat the smallest quantity would have been 

 sufficient to have killed it in a few minutes, for 

 the poison was liberally applied. However, 

 this did not happen, but I arrived at a huge pile 

 of rocks at last where the tracks disappeared, 

 and I eventually discovered a small opening 

 amongst them that evidently marked where the 

 beast I was in search of had taken refuge. The 

 place was an impossible one to open up, so I had 

 reluctantly to leave it. I had left my horse at 

 least a mile away tethered by my lariat to a tree. 

 On my way back I made a short cut by leaving 

 my back trail, intending to rejoin it farther 

 down the mountain. On passing some rocks I 

 came upon a porcupine nosing about, and this I 



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