n6 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



On the shelf he had had a long wait. A num- 

 ber of mountain sheep had evidently scented him 

 a short distance before reaching the place and 

 had turned out of the trail, tramped about, then 

 turned back. 



But three or four deer had come along, and 

 one big fellow, all unsuspecting, had stopped a 

 little below the rock. The lion leaped. His 

 compact appears to have caught the deer off 

 balance and knocked him over. But he regained 

 his feet with the lion clinging on, perhaps to the 

 top of his neck; and again on his feet the deer 

 leaped down the slope. The lion's shoulder 

 crashed against the point of a broken tree limb, 

 knocking him off into the snow. He crippled 

 slowly down into the canon, using only one front 

 foot. Probably one shoulder had been broken. 



Coming upon tracks in the woods one Febru- 

 ary, which showed a lion travelling leisurely, I 

 followed. He kept almost a compass course 

 toward the northeast, down through dense spruce 

 woods. A sudden jump to one side, followed by 

 a long wait, and evidently he had watched from 

 behind a spruce tree. Then he had edged off to 

 the right, advancing cautiously from tree to tr< 

 with long pauses to look or to use his nose or ears. 

 After moving through nearly half a circle h< 

 suddenly retreated one hundred feet. Thei 

 another advance, and another precipitous retreat. 



