Hunting American Lions

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HUNTING AMERICAN LIONS FRANK C. HIBBEN Illustrated by Paul Bransom THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY NEW YORK Copyright 1948 by Frank C. Hibben All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except by a reviewer, without the permission of the publisher. Designed by Maurice Serle Kaplan Manufactured in the United States of America by The Cornwall Press, Inc., Cornwall, N.

Y. To those immortals of the trail, Keeno, Old Red, Bugger, Buck, and Drive, all gone to the heaven where eKciting smells drift over canine Elysian Fields, this book, largely of their doings, is affectionately dedicated. CONTENTS I BEN LILLY i II HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED 16 III SLOW SURE 26 IV THE CATALINA HELLCAT 45 V THE KILLER OF TONTO RIM 60 VI PORCUPINE CAT 74 VII COPPERAS CANYON LIONESS 86 VIII OLD MAN SANDIA 106 IX POISON CANYON 138 X MOONLIGHT JAGUAR 157 XI BOBCATS IN THE SNOW 174 XII LION ON A ROPE 189 XIII THE MAN-EATER OF VANCOUVER 209 HUNTING AMERICAN LIONS CHAPTER I BEN LILLY M lANY of my friends had told me not to see the old man at all.

Hes bushed and hes dangerous they said. He talks to imag inary dogs, and he sees people that arent there I went out to the ranch near Silver City, New Mexico, never theless, and found old Ben Lilly. The pale blue of his eyes, as we shook hands, disturbed me. They were calm blue eyes, with all of the sadness of a man who had lived a solitary and lonely life.

It was the blue eyes you noticed first and the round and wrinkled face afterward. His white hair had not been cut for many months and hung down over his ears and forehead like a forkful of hay. His cheeks were pink and he seemed to radiate still latent energy. If Ben Lilly was as sick as I had been told, his appearance gave no indication of it.

But I felt uncomfortable in his presence. His placid look had an air of inquiry about it, as though he constantly expected me to say something. Lions, young man I expect its panthers you mean. Ive killed a heap of them. It was obvious that Ben wasnt talking to me, for he never again glanced in my direction, nor even seemed to sense my presence at all.

He went right on talking, ignoring my questions and making no effort to stay close to me or make sure that I had heard. We simply started walking from the spot where I had first met him and kept on walking. We were gone three days. HUNTING AMERICAN LIONS I had not come to see Ben Lilly on any casual visit.

There was a compelling purpose in my questions. This old lion and bear hunter was the first from whom I hoped to learn much. This was the initiation of a project making a study of the mountain lion A career is doing what you want to do and then finding some one to pay you for it. I managed to be fortunate enough to dis cover just this proposition.

In 1934 and 1935 I was offered a position hunting lions. A group called the Southwestern Con servation League, centered at Albuquerque, New Mexico, pro fessed themselves extremely interested in the mountain lion, both as a natural and scientific study. This group of far-seeing gentlemen expressed concern that this most colorful of American animals was becoming greatly reduced in numbers with little or no knowledge concerning them.

Mountain lions, which formerly ranged all of North America, from Canada southward, were now to be found in only small fragments of their former range, for the most part in the rugged mountains of our western states. Mountainlions still exist in the rank fastnesses of the Everglades of Florida and in the comparatively untouched wilderness of Central Mexico.

It was only in such wild spots that I might yet find enough lions to get a comprehensive story of their life and habits. The Southwestern Conservation League furnished me a car, a horse and a horse-trailer to set out on the lion trail. My pockets bulged with letters of introduction to the various professional lion hunters of the Southwest with whom I might hunt to gain the information which I desired...