The Last of the Plainsmen 



leg of the beast just in the nick of time. This enabled 

 Jones to take aim and fire at close range, which 

 ended the fight. Upon examination, it was discov 

 ered the cougar had been half-blinded by the fine 

 shot, which accounted for the ineffectual attempts 

 he had made to catch Jones. 



The mountain lion rarely attacks a human being 

 for the purpose of eating. When hungry he will 

 often follow the tracks of people, and under favor 

 able circumstances may ambush them. In the park 

 where game is plentiful, no one has ever known a 

 cougar to follow the trail of a person ; but outside the 

 park lions have been known to follow hunters, and 

 particularly stalk little children. The Davis family, 

 living a few miles north of the park, have had chil 

 dren pursued to the very doors of their cabin. And 

 other families relate similar experiences. Jones 

 heard of only one fatality, but he believes that if the 

 children were left alone in the woods, the cougars 

 would creep closer and closer, and when assured there 

 was no danger, would spring to kill. 



Jones never heard the cry of a cougar in the 

 National Park, which strange circumstance, consider 

 ing the great number of the animals there, he believed 

 to be on account of the abundance of game. But 

 he had heard it when a boy in Illinois, and when a 

 man all over the West, and the cry was always the 



