152 Hunting the Grisly 



starved cur. One dark night the dog treed 

 an animal which he could not see; so he cut 

 down the tree, and immediately Penny jumped 

 in and grabbed the beast. The man sung out 

 "Hold on, Penny," seeing that the dog had 

 seized some large, wild animal; the next mo- 

 ment the brute knocked the dog endways, 

 and at the same instant the man split open its 

 head with the axe. Great was his astonish- 

 ment, and greater still the astonishment of 

 the neighbors next day, when it was found 

 that he had actually killed a cougar. These 

 great cats often take to trees in a perfectly 

 foolish manner. My friend, the hunter 

 Woody, in all his thirty years' experience in 

 the wilds never killed but one cougar. He 

 was lying out in camp with two dogs' at the 

 time; it was about midnight, the fire was out, 

 and the night was pitch-black. He was 

 roused by the furious barking of his two dogs, 

 who had charged into the gloom, and were 

 apparently baying at something in a tree close 

 by. He kindled the fire, and to his astonish- 

 ment found the thing in the tree to be a 

 cougar. Coming close underneath he shot it 

 with his revolver; thereupon it leaped down, 

 ran some forty yards, and climbed up another 

 tree, where it died among the branches. 



