
RECREA TION 
Volume XI. 
JULY, 1899. 
Number 1. 
G. 0. SHIELDS (COQUINA), Editor and Manager. 
Ae EMO 

UING IN ,eOLORADO: 
C. A. DEANE. 
In the summer of 1866 I was 
with a party of government sur- 
veyors in Southern Colorado. Just 
as we had finished work one day an 
animal, scared out of a ravine that 
we were crossing, took refuge in a 
large cottonwood tree. In our party 
was a young man who hada penchant 
for procuring the skins of birds and 
animals, for mounting. 
The cry from one of the party that 
the beast in the tree was a mountain 
lion was enough to enlist Deane’s earn- 
est effort to secure its hide, and we 
agreed to wait while he went fora gun 
to the nearest ranch, 2 miles distant. 
He was urged to make all hasteas the 
lion might come down and make trou- 
ble for its besiegers. 
Deane left on the jump, and as he 
dashed down the bluff, in plain sight 
of the ranchman, who, with his wife 
and 2 children were working in a corn- 
field near his cabin, they stampeded 
for shelter, and the way they went 
over the corn hills, each with a child 
on his back, would have shamed an 
antelope. 
Arriving at the cabin Deane found 
the ranchman with his gun ready for 
business, his wife pale with fright, 
and the children howling like a young 
cyclone. 
‘‘Where are they?” he demanded. 
(CHie Seupla nee 
“ What's up a tree?” 
« A mountain lion.” . 
“Oh! I thought the Injuns were ; 
coming, but I'll get him; the varmint ~ 
has been stealing my pigs.’ 
A hurried return, and the ranchman 
soon sighted the lion in the tree. 
With a look of disgust he said “cat!” 
pulled the trigger of his gun, and down 
came the beast. Without another 
word its slayer left for home. 
The lynx, or bob-cat, for such it 
proved to be, was a large .one and 
Deane wished to save its hide, so Ely, 
the flag boy, kindly offered to take 
the cat to campon his pony. A _ hal- 
ter rope about 4 feet long was tied to 
a ring in the saddle and around the 
cat’s neck, which was then swung 
across his saddle, and Eli mounted. 
All went well till the cat slipped off, 
when the broncho, unused to having its 
heels bumped with such natural history 
specimens, began to buck in a way 
that only Western bronchos can do 
to perfection. Eli was landed on his 
back in a bunch of cactus, and the 
pony made a wild dash for camp. 
Jim, the cook, had supper all ready 
in tin dishes which were placed on a 
large poncho, spread on the ground. 
Across these the broncho charged, 
his feet and the dragging cat knock- 
ing our supper into the middle of next 
week. Another chargeand the dutch 
oven was upset, the fire sent in all 
directions, and the pony wound up his 
