194 THE FEAR OF SHADOWS 



that an average horse beats that. And yet, 

 judging b}^ the constant signalhng of a horse's 

 ears which point at every sound, I think his 

 sense of hearing catches vibrations above the 

 register of human ears, and many notes at 

 close range too faint to impress our senses. 



Whatever a horse ma}^ smell, hear or see, he 

 points out with nice gestures of the ears and 

 nostrils which are of infinite value for a man to 

 read and understand. The}^ conve}^ to the prac- 

 tised eye all sorts of warnings and useful little 

 hints. It is the training in peace of the habit 

 of observation which makes the scout for war. 



The Fear of Shadows. Once I took a 

 range horse into a forest w^here there were 

 flocks of sheep, herded a good deal of nights 

 by cougars {Felix concolor) who prospered 

 on their mutton. These cougars used to come 

 round my camp, liked it, I think, because there 

 was no gun-smell, and sang most wonderfully, 

 sitting so near that I could see the gleam of 

 firehght on their eyes. I hked them, but my 

 horse would stand astride the fire trembling. 

 I tried to explain to him that this was vanity, 

 because he was really far too thin to be edible. 

 While the cougars had nice fat sheep for the 

 asking, why should they care for horse bones ! 

 But all the signs he gave of lonehness and fear 



