Home of the Mountain Lion I4 i 



the mountain lions are so common, so much a menace 

 to stock, that the cattlemen frequently combine and hunt 

 them down with dogs. As a rule, the more difficult an 

 animal is to take, the more eager hunters are to secure 

 it, and I confess to many a ride up deep canons and over 

 narrow trails through the chaparral hoping to meet the 

 lion of the mountain, and what I know of the mountains, 

 their delights and pleasures, is mainly due to these quests 

 for mountain lion and other game. I conceive, then, 

 that the puma, call him what you will, is as good an 

 excuse, perhaps better than any other, to induce the 

 sport-loving reader to enter and know the Sierra Madre. 

 He is there, but there is a more certain and definite 

 game to be had : the impression and memory of mount- 

 ain life, the personality and individuality of the mountains, 

 that have peculiar charms and beauties of their own. 



Mountain climbing is a sport, a pastime, a science, if 

 you will, a science blending with the gentle arts and 

 graces, as your real mountaineer is a poet ; so I com- 

 mend hunting the mountain lion in the Sierra Madre. 

 No more fascinating hunting-ground can be found in the 

 south than the great range, from the head of the Santa 

 Ynez to San Jacinto. In this restricted area are some 

 of the most interesting peaks in America. 



These mountains face the Colorado desert on the 

 east, one of the most desolate places on earth, at 

 times a furnace : the hot air pouring upward in such 

 volume that it leaves a pseudo vacuum, to fill which, 

 the air rushes in from the ocean, explaining the 



