Picture on Page Twenty
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N A M E :
L A T I N M E A N I N G :
I D E N T I F I C A T I O N :
R A N G E A N D H A B I T A T :
N I C H E S :
B E N E F I T S :
O F F S P R I N G :
C O M P A R A B L E B E A S T S :
R A N G E M A P
THE SLIDE-ROCK BOLTER.
(Macrostoma saxiperrumptus.)
In the mountains of Colorado, where in summer the wood
are becoming infested with tourist, much uneasiness has been
caused by the presence of the slide-rock bolter. This frightful
animal lives only in the steepest mountain country where the
slopes are greater than 45 degrees. It has an immense head,
with small eyes, and a mouth somewhat on the order of a
sculpin, running back beyond its ears. The tail consist of a
divided flipper, with enormous grab-hooks, which it fastens
over the crest of the mountain or ridge, often remaining there
motionless for days at a time, watching the gulch for tourists
or any other hapless creature that may enter it. At the right
moment, after sighting a tourist, it will lift its tail, thus loosen-
ing its hold on the mountain, and with its small eyes riveted
on the poor unfortunate, and drooling thin skid grease from
the corners of its mouth, which greatly accelerates its speed,
the bolter comes down like a toboggan, scooping in its victim
as it goes, its own impetus carrying it up the next slope, where
it again slaps its tail over the ridge and waits. Whole parties
of tourists are reported to have been gulped at one scoop by
taking parties far back into the hills. The animals is a menace
not only to tourist but to the woods as well. Many a draw
through spruce-covered slopes has been laid low, the trees
being knocked out by the roots or mowed off as by a scythe
where the bolter has crashed down through from the peaks
above.###########################################
A forest ranger, whose district includes the rough county
between Ophir Peaks and the Lizzard Head, conceived the
bold idea of decoying a slide-rock bolter to its own destruction.
A dummy tourist was rigged up with plaid Norfolk jacket,
knee breeches, and a guide book to Colorado. It was then
filled full of giant powder and fulminate caps and posted in a
conspicuous place, where, sure enough, the next day it attracted
the attention of a bolter which had been hanging for days on
the slope of Lizzard Head. The resulting explosion flattened
half the buildings in Rico, which were never rebuilt, and the
surrounding hills fattened flocks of buzzards the rest of the
summer.##########################################
Page Twenty-one###################################
