The Cougar 157 



prey. Certainly no man could well listen 

 to a stranger and wilder sound. 



Ordinarily the rifleman is in no danger from 

 a hunted cougar; the beast's one idea seems 

 to be flight, and even if its assailant is very 

 close, it rarely charges if there is any chance 

 for escape. Yet there are occasions when it 

 will show fight. In the spring of 1890, a 

 man with whom I had more than once worked 

 on the round-up though I never knew his 

 name was badly mauled by a cougar near 

 my ranch. He was hunting with a compan- 

 ion and they unexpectedly came on the cou- 

 gar on a shelf of sandstone above their heads, 

 only some ten feet off. It sprang down on the 

 man, mangled him with teeth and claws for a 

 moment, and then ran away. Another man I 

 knew, a hunter named Ed. Smith, who had 

 a small ranch near Helena, was once charged 

 by a wounded cougar; he received a couple 

 of deep scratches, but was not seriously hurt. 



Many old frontiersmen tell tales of the cou- 

 gar's occasionally itself making the attack, 

 and dogging to his death some unfortunate 

 wayfarer. Many others laugh such tales to 

 scorn. It is certain that if such attacks occur 

 they are altogether exceptional, being in- 

 deed of such extreme rarity that they may be 



