THE BEAR "MONARCH." 189 



Wherever bait was dragged over the 

 mountain, and it was dragged many miles 

 for the purpose of enticing bear to the trap, 

 the lions followed the trail, but they would 

 not go into the trap. Still it is not safe 

 to generalize from this fact and assume 

 that the cougar or mountain lion never will 

 go into a trap, for he is a most erratic and 

 uncertain beast. Sometimes he is an ar 

 rant coward, and again he is as bold as a 

 genuine lion. Generally a dog will keep 

 cougars away from a camp or house, but 

 once in a while the cougar hunts the dog 

 and kills him. 



One afternoon a cougar jumped into Joe 

 Dye's dooryard at his ranch on the Sespe, 

 picked up Joe's baby and sprang over the 

 fence with it. Joe seized his rifle and shot 

 the animal as it ran, and when the cougar 

 felt the sting of the bullet he dropped the 

 baby and ran up the mountain. He had 

 seized the baby's clothes only, and the lit 

 tle one was not hurt. The next night the 



cougar returned, captured Joe's hound, 

 it 



