232 



RECREATION. 



with the deep bay of the hounds, some- 

 times apparently right in front of us, 

 at other times scarcely audible; never 

 knowing what minute we would be 

 right in the middle of the hunt. The 

 dogs make so much better time than 

 does the lion when running up hill- 

 that they soon close in on him. when 

 he turns down the gulch until he has 

 gained on them, then up again, 

 and so on until finally he is treed. 



In about 15 minutes we had our 

 lion up a tree, and as we rushed up 

 the hill I saw a dark shape against 

 the sky line, crawling down the in- 

 clined trunk of the tree. I was 

 afraid to shoot, as the mountaineer 

 and dogs were both in front of me, 

 hidden in the darkness. In an in- 

 stant^ we heard the game jump 

 to the ground and make off, followed 

 by the dogs. Davis fired at one of 

 the lions and shouted: " I've missed 

 him." This certainly looked as if the 

 woods were full of them. 



Another wild chase, another or 

 perhaps one of the same lions treed, 

 another rush to where the angry bark 

 of the dogs told us they had the 

 game ; but before we could reach them 

 we again heard the lion jump to the 

 ground and crash off through the un- 

 derbrush, followed by the dogs. By 

 this time, I was pretty weH winded, 

 and although the dogs again took up 

 the trail and soon had him again 

 treed, we were both slow in reaching 

 the spot, only to hear again the dis- 

 couraging " thump " as the lion took 

 to the ground. 



I was then complely tuckered out, 

 and sat down under a leaning tree 

 that the lion had just left, to wait 

 while Davis went off after the dogs. 

 In a few minutes, one old dog came 

 back to me, and in a great state of 

 excitement began again to bark up 

 the tree, jumping and attempting 

 to climb the trunk, which grew at 

 an angle with the steep bank of the 

 ravine. Just then Davis came back 

 for me. I moved higher up the 

 bank to meet him. We both sat 

 down to rest, never dreaminr that 

 there could be another lion ni the 

 tree under which 1 had been sitting 



so unconcernedly for the past 10 

 minutes. 



The night was pitch dark down in 

 this timbered gulch, but from our 

 new position, the top of the tree 

 showed faintly against the star- lit 

 sky, and together we exclaimed: 

 "There's another," prompted as 

 much by hearing as by sight. I told 

 Davis to light a match and as it flared 

 up there, sure enough, was another 

 lion, slowly crawling out on a hori- 

 zontal limb directly over and not 

 10 feet above where I had been sit- 

 ting. I was armed with a 10-bore 

 Greener hammerless, and without 

 rising or aiming, for which there was 

 no time, fired from the hip, and had 

 the good luck to put a load of buck- 

 shot through the big cat's heart. 

 Davis said he saw the shot drive 

 him heels over head off the bough, 

 and we both heard him crashing, 

 rolling, and tumbling down the 

 mountain side, through the under- 

 brush. 



All the other dogs, which appar- 

 ently had been unable to find the 

 trail of the other lion, at the sound of 

 the shot came rushing over. We were 

 not slow in getting down the hill- 

 side. About 50 yards up the other 

 bank of the gulch we found the pack 

 chewing and tugging at the lion, 

 which was stone dead, with a hole 

 completely through the body just 

 back of the shoulder. We drove 

 off the dogs before they had dam- 

 aged the hide, lit a fire and proceeded 

 to skin what proved to be a young 

 lioness, heavy with cub. 



It was difficult to get enough light 

 without scorching ourselves, and we 

 were both so tired that we left 

 her and started for home. I had 

 only recently left a sick bed, and the 

 next day was unable to move, so my 

 wife, who has as keen an interest in 

 sport as myself, with one of my sons, 

 went on horseback to Davis' ranch 

 and with him to the scene of my good 

 luck. After Davis had completed 

 the job of skinning, my wife, much to 

 her broncho's disgust, brought the 

 head and hide home with her. I 

 boiled and cleaned the head, salted 



