6 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



which, by the way, his salary has been an in- 

 adequate return. One important feature of his 

 work is to keep down the larger beasts and birds 

 of prey, the arch-enemies of the deer, mountain- 

 sheep, and grouse; and the most formidable 

 among these foes of the harmless wild life are 

 the cougars. At the time of our visit he owned 

 five hounds, which he had trained especially, 

 as far as his manifold duties gave him the time, 

 to the chase of cougars and bobcats. Coyotes 

 were plentiful, and he shot these wherever the 

 chance offered; but coyotes are best kept down 

 by poison, and poison cannot be used where 

 any man is keeping the hounds with which 

 alone it is possible effectively to handle the 

 cougars. 



At this point the Colorado, in its deep gulf, 

 bends south, then west, then north, and in- 

 closes on three sides the high plateau which is 

 the heart of the forest and game reserve. It 

 was on this plateau, locally known as Buckskin 

 Mountain, that we spent the next fortnight. 

 The altitude is from eight thousand to nearly 

 ten thousand feet, and the climate is that of 

 the far north. Spring does not come until 

 June; the snow lies deep for seven months. 

 We were there in midsummer, but the ther- 

 mometer went down at night to 36, 34, and once 



