192 TKTJE BEAR STORIES. 



own butchering and would not touch mut- 

 ton that was killed for them by anybody 

 else. A cougar raided a camp one night, 

 sprang upon the sheep from a willow 

 thicket and killed three within twenty 

 yards of the sleeping herder. The fastidi- 

 ous cougar cut their throats, sucked their 

 blood and left their carcasses at the edge 

 of the thicket without eating the meat. 

 But the bears would not touch what the 

 cougar left. 



Shortly after this the herders reported 

 that the bears were avoiding the sheep and 

 passing around the bands without making 

 an attack. 



Apparently bruin had made a miscalcu- 

 lation in his calendar and was keeping 

 Lent in the wrong season, but his erratic 

 conduct was explained when some of the 

 herders admitted that they had put strych- 

 nine into several carcasses. Some of the 

 bears had got doses of poison large enough 

 to make them mortally unwell, but had 

 survived and sworn off eating mutton. 



