344 Tlie Wilderness Httntei^ 



(\ if its assailant is very close, it rarely charges if there is any 

 chance for escape. Yet there are occasions when it will 

 show fight. In the spring of 1890, a man with whom I 

 had more than once worked on the round-up — though I 



,' never knew his name — was badly mauled by a cougar near 

 my ranch. He was hunting with a companion and they 



! unexpectedly came on the cougar on a shelf of sandstone 

 above their heads, only some ten feet off. It sprang down 

 on the man, mangled him with teeth and claws for a 

 moment, and then ran away. Another man I knew, a 

 hunter named Ed. Smith, who had a small ranch near 

 Helena, was once charged by a wounded cougar ; he 

 received a couple of deep scratches, but was not seriously 

 hurt. 



Many old frontiersmen tell tales of the cougar's occa- 

 sionally itself making the attack, and dogging to his death 

 some unfortunate wayfarer. Many others laugh such tales 

 to scorn. It is certain that if such attacks occur they are 

 altogether exceptional, being indeed of such extreme 

 rarity that they may be entirely disregarded in practice. 

 I should have no more hesitation in sleeping out in a wood 

 where there were cougars, or walking through it after 

 nightfall, than I should have if the cougars were tomcats. 

 Yet it is foolish to deny that in exceptional instances 

 attacks may occur. Cougars vary wonderfully in size, and 

 no less in temper. Indeed I think that by nature they are 

 as ferocious and bloodthirsty as they are cowardly ; and 

 that their habit of sometimes dogging wayfarers for miles 

 is due to a desire for bloodshed which they lack the 

 courage to realize. In the old days, when all wild beasts 



