346 The Wilderness Httnter, 



probably could not make out clearly what the men were, 

 as they walked bent under their burdens, with the deer 

 skins on their backs. Evidently the cougars were only 

 trying to get at the venison. 



In 1886 a cougar killed an Indian near Flathead Lake. 

 Two Indians were hunting together on horseback when 

 they came on the cougar. It fell at once to their shots, 

 and they dismounted and ran towards it. Just as they 

 reached it it came to, and seized one, killing him instantly 

 with a couple of savage bites in the throat and chest ; it 

 then raced after the other, and, as he sprung on his horse, 

 struck him across the buttocks, inflicting a deep but not 

 dangerous scratch. I saw this survivor a year later. He 

 evinced ereat reluctance to talk of the event, and insisted 

 that the thing which had slain his companion was not 

 really a cougar at all, but a devil. 



A she-cougar does not often attempt to avenge the 

 loss of her young, but sometimes she does. A remarkable 

 .instance of the kind happened to my friend. Professor 

 John Bache McMaster, in 1875. He was camped near 

 the head of Green River, Wyoming. One afternoon he 

 found a couple of cougar kittens, and took them into 

 camp ; they were clumsy, playful, friendly little creatures. 

 The next afternoon he remained in camp with the cook. 

 Happening to look up he suddenly spied the mother 

 cougar running noiselessly down on them, her eyes glaring 

 and tail twitching. Snatching up his rifle, he killed her 

 when she was barely twenty yards distant. 



A ranchman, named Trescott, who was at one time 

 my neighbor, told me that while he was living on a sheep- 



