WHAT TRACKING MEANS, AND 

 SOME HUNTING METHODS 



BY the term " tracking " we usually under- 

 stand the following of a trail, but if a 

 hunter attempts to get a shot at his quarry 

 solely by this means he has to depend on good 

 luck or physical endurance. The cougar is, in 

 my opinion, the most perfect tracker and most 

 successful still-hunter; he tracks, but he does not 

 follow the trail like a pack of wolves or dogs; 

 he uses it only as a guide, following it for an 

 occasional fifty or one hundred yards, which is 

 to my mind the proper method for the human 

 hunter. 



Tracking also means the ascertaining of the 

 preferred stand of certain animals. If, for ex- 

 ample, the rutting place of the biggest elk in a 

 district is located by comparison of various 

 tracks, and the bull is shot later by waiting for, 

 or stalking him at his favorite place, he un- 

 doubtedly falls a victim to tracking. Again, a 



125 



