<TITLE>18. Par 117-121</TITLE>L-117 So when I started off; it was kind of low. And any of you New Hampshire people, and up in there in the New England, knows what it means when that fog comes down, or anywhere else in the mountains; you don't know where you're at. That's all. You can't see your hand before you. So then I--I started down through the--a little chopping, like, come down, and went over across the ridge and come up. And I noticed a panther, you'd call it here in this part of the country. We call it in the west, a cougar. They call it, up there, a mountain lion. It's all the same animal. It's a puma, really what it is. Same cat, about nine-foot long, weight about a hundred fifty, two hundred pounds. He crossed the road, and I slipped the gun real quick, not fast enough to get the shot at him.

L-118 Well, I slipped on up over the hill, chasing this cougar, watching the leaves where he had moved, you know. I could hear him. He had four feet. I knowed he wasn't a two-footed animal, his four feet. And I knowed he wasn't a deer, 'cause a deer stomps. And he would slip real easy, the cat, you know, like that. And a bear rolls his feet when he walks. And so I knew it must be a cougar. And he was behind the log and I didn't see him, till just got a glimpse of him; he was gone.
And I watched the way he disturbed the leaves, you know, up over the top of the mountain, and down like this, and I wasn't watching that cloud coming all the time, you know, coming down, the fog. I slipped down, went down through a great valley and went down into the giants, following this cougar. I thought, "I'll catch him after while." I'd see a place, and I'd run up on a high place, and look all around like that, and peep around, see if I could see him, listen real close, and get down, slip down again. You could hear the brush go crashing, way ahead of him as he going out. See, he was hitting the trees then so I couldn't trail him. See, he got smart, got up in the trees and jumping from tree to tree. Then he knowed I couldn't trail him there. Oh, I thought, "Oh, anyhow."

L-120 And I started back up the canyon, and I whiffed a bear, an old male bear. I thought, "I'll get him now, boy, that's good." I whiffed again, and I went a little farther, and I watched for all kinds of signs and everything. I couldn't see a thing; turned back down, and went back down the other side of the mountain. And then I begin to notice, getting a little foggy. And I'd whiff again, he was in the air somewhere. I said, "No. Now, what happened, the wind was coming this a-way, and I caught the bear whiff come from this down that way, and I've crossed around now and the wind's coming from this other direction. So I have to go back to where I smelled the bear the first time, and take it from there."

L-121 And on my road back, I looked across the canyon; I seen the bushes move. And when I did, something black moved. I thought, "There he is." I throwed a shell up in the gun, real quick, and stood still. And when it did, it was a great big buck, great big one. I thought, "That's just what I was wanting anyhow": shot the buck.
I thought, "Well." I never noticed it was kind of... Time I got him fixed up, looked... I cleaned off my hands and fixed my knife, put it back. And I thought, "Praise God. Thank You, Lord Jesus; You've give me my winter's meat. Praise be to God." And I got my gun. I thought, "I'll go right back up the canyon here now." I said, "Look at here, boy, storm's coming. I better get out of here and get back over to Meda and them." I said, "I have to hurry."


<A HREF="P19">Next Page</A>