April, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
165 
Indian pipe representing a raccoon exploring a crawfish hole 
what they did not eat. Green apples 
were plucked from the orchards and 
torn open for the seeds. 
Audubon writes: 
“Do not imagine, reader, that all 
these outrages are borne without retal- 
iation on the part of the planters. So 
far from this, the parrakeets are de- 
stroyed in great numbers, for whilst 
busily engaged in plucking off the 
fruits or tearing the grain from the 
stalks, the husbandman approaches 
them with perfect ease, and commits 
great slaughter among them. All the 
survivors rise, shriek, fly about for a 
few moments and again alight on the 
very place of imminent danger. The 
gun is kept at work; eight or ten, or 
even twenty are killed at any dis- 
charge.”} 
Of course such animals as the moun- 
tain lion and wild cat were extermin- 
ated from Ohio for the same reason 
that it was necessary to exterminate 
the parrakeet. Again, the Indian has 
provided in stone faithful carvings of 
these animals. The positions and 
markings of each are well executed 
and the carvings could only have been 
made by one who had carefully studied 
them in life. 
T HERE is a documentary evidence 
to establish an unusual adventure 
with a mountain lion in Ohio. 
Henry Utt was employed as a hunter 
for Nathaniel Massie’s surveying 
party during the time that party was 
surveying the Virginia Military Dis- 
trict. It was his duty to supply meat 
for the surveyors. 
While hunting on McCulloch creek 
night overtook him, so, wrapping him- 
self in his blanket, he lay down by a 
log on a bed of leaves. He did not 
wake until morning. Upon waking he 
discovered that he had been covered 
with leaves during the night. He was 
at a loss to understand any reason for 
this and felt that trouble was near. 
Utt primed his rifle, adjusted the 
flint and hid behind a tree to watch the 
log where he had slept. Soon a moun- 
tain lion came creeping toward the log, 
followed by her litter of young. When 
she drew near the log she sprang into 
the bed of leaves as if to attack some 
prey. Upon landing there she struck 
into the bed with her paws so rapidly 
that the leaves flew around as though 
in a whirlwind, but she soon discovered 
that her victim had escaped. Utt 
killed her. 
This is indeed a strange story; yet it 
is plausible. The mountain lion always 
leaps upon its prey. Its weight is 
from one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred pounds. The impact produced by 
the blow of such a weight usually stuns 
the victim. The story may be justified 
in natural history. E. W. Nelson, in 
the National Geographic tells us: 
“The mountain lion, while powerful 
enough to be dangerous to man, is in 
reality extremely timid. Owing to its 
being a potentially dangerous animal, 
the popular conception of it is that of 
a fearsome beast whose savage exploits 
are celebrated in the folk-lore of our 
frontier. As a matter of fact, few 
animals are less dangerous, although 
there are authentic accounts of wan- 
ton attacks upon people.” 
Utt believed that the lion found him 
while he slept and covered him with 
leaves to conceal him from some other 
beast. Then she went to bring her 
whelps to enjoy a feast. 
T HREE pipes in the form of the 
black bear were taken from this 
Indian mound. These are not of 
as good workmanship as the other 
pipes, but are sufficiently well executed 
to enable us to readily classify them. 
The bear has, of course, long since 
gone the way of the mountain lion. But 
some of the old stories of them are still 
of interest. 
As a fact bearing upon the abun- 
dance of black bear in this region, it 
may be stated that during the years 
1805-07 more than eight thousand bear 
skins were shipped from the Big 
Sandy and Guyandotte rivers. 
In all pioneer traditions there are 
more stories about bears than any 
other animal. The reason for this is 
that the bear is easily tamed, if cap- 
tured when a cub, they sometimes 
stand or walk erect like a man and the 
imprint of their paws is quite like that 
of the human foot. Such facts have 
caused bears to be studied more than 
any animal. 
Three interesting stories have been 
preserved with reference to black 
(continued on page 187) 
iThe Birds of America. 
The effigy of a mountain lion was also found 
