Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game An American Lion -- Long, Pics

Two hours later I was still lost in the thrill of it and there was a little sadness about the miss and, pretty much as a matter of course, I went down to find the arrow. It had come to rest in a blowdown after skipping off rock and from 10 feet away there was clearly something wrong with the color.

There was blood on the arrow, good blood, over the fletching. I was stunned. I had held on her chest. After the leap I thought I had shot under her, but it was a through-and-through arrow. How could anything do that after an arrow through the chest? There was no stomach matter but no bubbles either. No froth. And no blood on the ground at all. Not a drop. How could a passthrough arrow leave no blood at all?

There was nothing to do but fan out. I worked out and across up the mountainside, trying to follow the memory of her sound. It took a long time. About 20 yards from the arrow, in thick brush, I found spots of blood. They were red, rich and few. I thought of big tom leopards waiting in the trees for Jim Corbett. But since this was an American lion I could almost dismiss it.

With two points the line was easier. Another 20 yards and more drops of blood. No clots, no bubbles, no froth. Just red blood. I made a small cairn. More blood in about 30 yards. Another cairn. The mountain was steep and she angled up it, shooting leaves and earth from her heaving black paws. 15 more yards and a few drops. Another cairn. I had her line but was losing the day. I had some chance of finding her the next day. But the bear had a better chance. The afternoon waned.

After about 350 yards (two hours or more for me), she changed her angle and went with the countour. I thought it was a good thing. I was still building cairns. There were Emory oak blowdowns with their short stiff twigs and on one of these I found some kind of tissue. There was a small string of it, like fat. There was more blood and before I could build another cairn I saw, through the brush, another blowdown 20 yards away. There was a small web of fat strung on it. I had never seen anything like it, but was very glad. She was in a bad, bad way, her impossible strength drained to dragging over a knee-high blowdown. I stood straight up for the first time in I didn�t remember and there was a beautiful, perfect, tawny color on the leaves and she looked to be laid out sleeping.