Ranching in the Bad Lands 31 



round the ranch, regularly and boldly, every night, 

 and she would at once go out to him. In the day- 

 light he would lie hid in the bushes at some little dis- 

 tance. Once or twice his hiding-place was discov- 

 ered and then the men would amuse themselves by 

 setting the Newfoundland on him. She would make 

 at him with great apparent ferocity; but when they 

 were a good way from the men he would turn 

 round and wait for her and they would go romping 

 off together, not to be seen again for several hours. 

 The cougar is hardly ever seen round my ranch ; 

 but toward the mountains it is very destructive both 

 to horses and horned cattle. The ranchmen know it 

 by the name of mountain lion; and it is the same 

 beast that in the East is called panther or "painter." 

 The cougar is the same size and build as the Old 

 World leopard, and with very much the same hab- 

 its. One will generally lie in wait for the heifers 

 or young steers as they come down to water, and 

 singling out an animal, reach it in a couple of bounds 

 and fasten its fangs in the throat or neck. I have 

 seen quite a large cow that had been killed by a 

 cougar ; and on another occasion, while out hunting 

 over light snow, I came across a place where two 

 bucks, while fighting, had been stalked up to by a 

 cougar which pulled down one and tore him in 

 pieces. The cougar's gait is silent and stealthy to 

 an extraordinary degree; the look of the animal 

 when creeping up to his prey has been wonderfully 

 caught by the sculptor, Kemeys, in his bronzes : "The 

 Still Hunt" and "The Silent Footfall." 



