134 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



cowardly ; and that their habit of sometimes 

 dogging wayfarers for miles is due to a desire 

 for bloodshed which they lack the courage to 

 realize. In the old days, when all wild beasts 

 were less shy than at present, there was more 

 danger from the cougar ; and this was es- 

 pecially true in the dark canebrakes of some 

 of the southern States, where the man a cougar 

 was most likely to encounter was a nearly 

 naked and unarmed negro. General Hampton 

 tells me that near his Mississippi plantation, 

 many years ago, a negro who was one of a 

 gang engaged in building a railroad through 

 low and wet ground was waylaid and killed 

 by a cougar late one night as he was walking 

 alone through the swamp. 



I knew two men in Missoula who were once 

 attacked by cougars in a very curious manner. 

 It was in January, and they were walking home 

 through the snow after a hunt, each carrying 

 on his back the saddle, haunches, and hide of 

 a deer he had slain. Just at dusk, as they 

 were passing through a narrow ravine, the 

 man in front heard his partner utter a sudden 

 loud call for help. Turning, he was dumb- 

 founded to see the man lying on his face in 

 the snow, with a cougar which had evidently 

 just knocked him down standing over him, 

 grasping the deer meat ; while another cougar 

 was galloping up to assist. Swinging his rifle 

 round he shot the first one in the brain, and it 

 dropped motionless, whereat the second halted, 

 wheeled, and bounded into the woods. His 

 companion was not in the least hurt or even 



