340 The Wilderness Hunter, 



though it managed to catch one dog in its jaws and bite 

 him severely. , 



A wholly exceptional instance of the kind was related 

 to me by my old hunting friend Willis. In his youth, in 

 southwest Missouri, he knew a half-witted " poor white " 

 who was very fond of hunting coons. He hunted at 

 night, armed with an axe, and accompanied by his dog 

 Penny, a large, savage, half-starved cur. One dark night 

 the dog treed an animal which he could not see ; so he 

 cut down the tree, and immediately Penny jumped in and 

 grabbed the beast. The man sung out " Hold on. Penny," 

 seeing that the dog had seized some large, wild animal ; the 

 next moment the brute knocked the dog endways, and at 

 the same instant the man split open its head with the axe. 

 Great was his astonishment, and greater still the astonish- 

 ment of the neighbors next day when it was found that 

 he had actually killed a cougar. These great cats often 

 take to trees in a perfectly foolish manner. My friend, 

 the hunter Woody, in all his thirty years' experience in 

 the wilds never killed but one cougar. He was lying out 

 in camp with two dogs at the time ; it was about mid- 

 night, the fire was out, and the night was pitch-black. He 

 was roused by the furious barking of his two dogs, who 

 had charged into the gloom, and were apparently baying 

 at something in a tree close by. He kindled the fire, and 

 to his astonishment found the thing in the tree to be a 

 cougar. Cominor close underneath he shot it with his 

 revolver ; thereupon it leaped down, ran some forty 

 yards, and climbed up another tree, where it died among 

 the branches. 



