A COUGAR HUNT 19 



in connection with our animals. At night they 

 were turned loose to feed, most of them with 

 hobbles, some of them with bells. Before dawn, 

 two or three of the party — usually including 

 one, and sometimes both, of the elder boys — 

 w^ere off on foot, through the chilly dew, to 

 bring them in. Usually this was a matter of 

 an hour or two; but once it took a day, and 

 twice it took a half-day. Both breaking camp 

 and making camp, with a pack-outfit, take 

 time; and in our case each of the packers, in- 

 cluding the tw^o elder boys, used his own hitch — 

 single-diamond, squaw hitch, cow-man's hitch, 

 miner's hitch, Navajo hitch, as the case might 

 be. As for cooking and washing dishes — why, 

 I wish that the average tourist-sportsman, the 

 city-hunter-with-a-guide, would once in a while 

 have to cook and wash dishes for himself; it 

 would enable him to grasp the reality of things. 

 We were sometimes nearly drowned out by 

 heavy rain-storms. We had good food; but 

 the only fresh meat we had was the cougar 

 meat. This was delicious; quite as good as 

 venison. Yet men rarely eat cougar flesh. 



Cougars should be hunted when snow is on 

 the ground. It is difficult for hounds to trail 

 them in hot weather, when there is no water 

 and the ground is dry and hard. However, we 



