126 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



logs, with a few young evergreens in front 

 an excellent ambush. A broad game trail 

 slanted down the hill directly past me. I lay 

 perfectly quiet for about an hour, listening to 

 the murmur of the pine forests, and the occa- 

 sional call of a jay or woodpecker, and gaz- 

 ing eagerly along the trail in the waning light 

 of the late afternoon. Suddenly, without 

 noise or warning of any kind, a cougar stood 

 in the trail before me. The unlooked-for 

 and unheralded approach of the beast was 

 fairly ghost-like. With its head lower than 

 its shoulders, and its long tail twitching, it 

 slouched down the path, treading as softly as 

 a kitten. I waited until it had passed and 

 then fired into the short ribs, the bullet rang- 

 ing forward. Throwing its tail up in the air, 

 and giving a bound, the cougar galloped off 

 over a slight ridge. But it did not go far ; 

 within a hundred yards I found it stretched 

 on its side, its jaws still working convulsively. 

 The true way to hunt the cougar is to follow 

 it with dogs. If the chase is conducted in 

 this fashion, it is very exciting, and resembles 

 on a larger scale the ordinary method of 

 hunting the wildcat or small lynx, as practised 

 by the sport-loving planters of the southern 

 States. With a very little training, hounds 

 readily and eagerly pursue the cougar, show- 

 ing in this kind of chase none of the fear and 

 disgust they are so prone to exhibit when put 

 on the trail of the certainly no more danger- 

 ous wolf. The cougar, when the hounds are 

 on its track, at first runs, but when hard* 



