Where Insurrectos Insurrect 
The Sierra Madre of Mexico—Lion Hunting With 
Dogs—Turkeys and Grizzly Bears—Lovely 
and Lonely Hunting Country 
By J. A. M. LETHBRIDGE 
[The following letter was written and sent out from camp just before the Mexican insurrection broke out. 
Since then there have been no opportunities to hear from this hunting camp, and whether the author is still 
hunting whether he has joined the insurrectos, in their operations about Chihuahua, or has been conscripted into 
the Mexican army, no one knows. 
We may feel reasonably sure that, if he has taken St 
experience in wild countries ranges from South Africa t. 
Mexico. As a soldier, he fought in the Boer war, anc 
We should like to hear what his partner did with the 
Editor.] 
M Y headquarters are about fifty miles from 
the railway, in a most lovely valley, away 
up in the mountains. There is unlimited 
food for the horses and mules and splendid water. 
As 1 write this I am sitting in the shade of a 
huge pine to keep away from the scorching sun. 
At this time of the year there is a nice breeze, 
but the nights are bitterly cold, with thick ice 
and heavy frosts. 
A beautiful stream running down the valley is 
clear as crystal and chock full of what the Mexi¬ 
cans call black bass. I have never seen a black 
bass and do not know. The fish do not run 
very large—from eight to twelve inches—but 
lower down where the river runs through a 
large canon, and where there are deep holes, 
they are larger. They are good eating. 1 hey 
rise to any sort of fly and do not seem to fear 
the angler. The air is delightful and it makes 
one feel a new man. Ihere are quantities of 
ducks — mallards and bluebills —which make a 
pleasant change to the menu, and as the winter 
goes on many more will come in. We have 
what is called the mountain quail, or fool hen. 
These one finds almost everywhere in large 
coveys, and fool hens they are. Unless you kick 
them up, they will not move, but once on the 
wing they give very pretty shooting and are 
delicious food. 
In the mountains about a mile from camp one 
is in a hunter’s paradise. I never know what 
sort of a rifle to take. If one carries a .401 re¬ 
peater in case of running across bears, and there 
are big ones here, he promptly runs into a flock 
of turkeys. The other day I was out with my 
wife and just as we got within about 170 yards 
of a flock of turkeys, which at the moment I 
did not see. As we were riding up a creek, her 
horse started to buck, she having by some means 
got the rope under its' tail. I had to jump off, 
les at all, Mr. Lethbridge is doing good service. His 
North Africa, and from British Columbia down to 
he is abundantly able to take care of himself, 
jaguars in Sonora, and hope that some time we may.— 
1 
at the same moment catching sight of the turkeys. 
After quieting her horse I had a shot and kilied 
my turkey, but had to pick it up in pieces. In 
ail probability if I had taken a smaller bore, 
•30-30, I should have, or might have, met a 
grizzly. It is hard to know which is the best 
all-round rifle to carry. 
Let me digress for a moment and tell you 
about rifles being brought into Mexico. The 
Customs officials at Ciudad Juarez for some rea¬ 
son will give one much trouble; in fact, the 
importation of arms into Mexico from the United 
States is prohibited, and although sometimes it 
can be done I think—by means of tips and much 
politeness—there is always danger of trouble. 
For instance I came from Chihuahua, but made 
the mistake of not showing my guns at Juarez 
on my arrival. When 1 left Juarez again for 
Casas Grandes, the Customs officials made a lot 
of fuss, and although I explained that I came 
from Mexico and that I had bought the rifles 
in Mexico, it was some time before they would 
let me through. One unlucky man had eighty 
.30-30 cartridges in his pockets. They scented 
it out and confiscated all of them, whereas via 
Tampico or Vera Cruez you can bring all you 
want, and there is no difficulty at the Custom 
House. So much for bringing arms and ammu¬ 
nition into Mexico. Now, back to camp. 
One day I went out to kill deer and was 
successful not far from my camp. Taking in the 
saddle, I pegged the forequarters down for bait, 
as a Mexican assured me there were plenty of 
lions about. The next morning I left camp early 
with my wife, who was most keen to see a lion, 
and we went to where I had killed the deer, 
taking with us four hounds and four Airedales. 
These hounds are trained to run only lions and 
bears, and not to look at deer. I do not say 
they will not run deer, because on occasions they 
will, but it is hopeless if they run deer, as these 
are so numerous that they constantly jump up 
when the hounds are running a lion, and it natu¬ 
rally spoils all hope of getting the lion if they 
change. Approaching the kill very carefully I 
saw a lion, but for an instant only, and he was 
off. Calling my wife to bring up the hounds, 
they struck his red hot trail and were off in an 
instant, the Airedales putting down their noses 
to the trail like old trained dogs. I was pleased 
to see this and I know that with a little more 
training I shall have a pack fit for anything. 
The Airedales will run deer, and mighty quick, 
too, but they are under good control and only 
require a little rating, when they stop. 
To follow the dogs on horseback was impos¬ 
sible, for the ground was too broken. No one 
who has not been in the sierras can have any 
idea of what the country is. You continually 
come to places which are quite impassable and 
which even on foot are very hard to get over. 
For this reason hunting lions or bears without 
good dogs is rather hopeless. I told my wife 
to stay where she was and I would climb up a 
bit to try to see what was going on. We could 
hear the dogs running merrily above us, but the 
scrub oak, dwarf pines and other growth made 
it impossible to see. They could not have gone 
more than a mile before the lion found it was 
getting too hot for him and went up a tree. I 
could tell in an instant by the change in their 
music when they had treed him and we soon 
arrived to see the lion half way up a fair sized 
pine. The shot belonged to my wife and she 
made good, hitting him in the head and killing 
him instantly with the first shot; not so bad for 
a tyro, because at times we all get nervous. 
After skinning out this lion, which was a 
young male in fine condition, we returned to the 
kill to try to pick up another lion, and although 
the hounds feathered and tried their best, they 
could run only a few yards and then would 
throw up their heads. Thus we had to give 
it up as a bad job. The sun was too hot and had 
practically obliterated all scent. I was quite satis¬ 
fied, especially over the work of the whole pack, 
which promises great things. 
Next day my partner came up and took three 
of the hounds and two Airedales. He has gone 
with a party over the divide into Sonora State 
to try to kill a tiger or spotted mountain lion— 
a jaguar. Tigers are very much more pug¬ 
nacious than is the puma and are terrors on 
stock. Some people say that hounds cannot 
make a tiger tree, but this we shall see on his 
return. He is confident of success, though he 
told me that on one occasion he had dogs after 
a tiger, which he eventua'lv shot, because though 
it would not tree, it kept stopping to fieht the 
dogs, and its hind quarters were all bfften up 
with their attentions. Notwithstanding this it 
would not -go up a tree. The tiger has a very 
