124 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



leave cover at any time, its habit of slinking 

 off through the brush, instead of running in 

 the open, when startled, and the way in which 

 it lies motionless in its lair even when a man 

 is within twenty yards, that render it so diffi- 

 cult to still-hunt. 



In fact it is next to impossible with any 

 hope of success regularly to hunt the cougar 

 without dogs or bait. Most cougars that are 

 killed by still-hunters are shot by accident 

 while the man is after other game. This has 

 been my own experience. Although not com- 

 mon, cougars are found near my ranch, where 

 the ground is peculiarly favorable for the 

 solitary rifleman ; and for ten years I have, 

 off and on, devoted a day or two to their pur- 

 suit ; but never successfully. One Decem- 

 ber a large cougar took up his abode on a 

 densely wooded bottom two miles above the 

 ranch house. I did not discover his existence 

 until I went there one evening to kill a deer, 

 and found that he had driven all the deer off 

 the bottom, having killed several, as well as 

 a young heifer. Snow was falling at the time, 

 but the storm was evidently almost over ; the 

 leaves were all off the trees and bushes ; and 

 I felt that next day there would be such a 

 chance to follow the cougar as fate rarely 

 offered. In the morning by dawn I was at the 

 bottom, and speedily found his trail. Fol- 

 lowing it I came across his bed, among some 

 cedars in a dark, steep gorge, where the buttes 

 bordered the bottom. He had evidently just 

 left it, and I followed his tracks all day. But 



