A COUGAR HUNT 13 



olds; but three were mighty master bucks, and 

 their velvet-clad antlers made them look as if 

 they had rocking-chairs on their heads. Stately 

 of port and bearing, they walked a few steps at 

 a time, or stood at gaze on the carpet of brown 

 needles strewn with cones; on their red coats 

 the flecked and broken sun-rays played; and as 

 we watched them, down the aisles of tall tree 

 trunks the odorous breath of the pines blew in 

 our faces. 



The deadly enemies of the deer are the cou- 

 gars. They had been very plentiful all over the 

 table-land until Uncle Jim thinned them out, 

 killing between two and three hundred. Usually 

 their lairs are made in the well-nigh inacces- 

 sible ruggedness of the canyon itself. Those 

 which dwelt in the open forest were soon killed 

 off. Along the part of the canyon where we 

 hunted there was usually an upper wall of 

 sheer white cUffs; then came a very steep slope 

 covered by a thick scrub of dwarf oak and 

 locust, with an occasional piny on or pine; and 

 then another and deeper wall of vermilion 

 cliffs. It was along this intermediate slope 

 that the cougars usually passed the day. At 

 night they came up through some gorge or 

 break in the cliff and rambled through the 

 forests and along the rim after the deer. They 



