Ranching in the Bad Lands. 27 



less of the wild beasts, and armed only with a long knife 

 for he was a man of colossal strength, and of fierce and 

 determined temper. One night he started to return late, 

 expecting to reach the plantation in time for his daily 

 task on the morrow. But he never reached home, and it 

 was thought he had run away. However, when search 

 was made for him his body was found in the path through 

 the swamp, all gashed and torn, and but a few steps from 

 him the body of a cougar, stabbed and cut in many 

 places. Certainly that must have been a grim fight, in 

 the gloomy, lonely recesses of the swamp, with no one to 

 watch the midnight death struggle between the powerful, 

 naked man and the ferocious brute that was his almost 

 unseen assailant. 



When hungry, a cougar will attack any thing it can 

 master. I have known of their killing wolves and large 

 dogs. A friend of mine, a ranchman in Wyoming, had 

 two grizzly bear cubs in his possession at one time, and 

 they were kept in a pen outside the ranch. One night 

 two cougars came down, and after vain efforts to catch 

 a dog which was on the place, leaped into the pen and 

 carried off the two young bears ! 



Two or three powerful dogs, however, will give a 

 cougar all he wants to do to defend himself. A relative 

 of mine in one of the Southern States had a small pack of 

 five blood-hounds, with which he used to hunt the cane- 

 brakes for bear, wildcats, etc. On one occasion they ran 

 across a cougar, and after a sharp chase treed him. As 

 the hunters drew near he leaped from the tree and made 

 off, but was overtaken by the hounds and torn to pieces 



