130 



HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



bold. Willis once fired at some bighorn sheep, 

 on a steep mountain-side ; he missed, and im- 

 mediately after his shot, a cougar made a dash 

 into the midst of the flying band, in hopes to 

 secure a victim. The cougar roams over long 

 distances, and often changes its hunting 

 ground, perhaps remaining in one place two 

 or three months, until the game is exhausted, 

 and then shifting to another. When it does not 

 lie in wait it usually spends most of the night, 

 winter and summer, in prowling restlessly 

 around the places where it thinks it may come 

 across prey, and it will patiently follow an 

 animal's trail. There is no kind of game, 

 save the full-grown grisly and buffalo, which it 

 does not at times assail and master. It readily 

 snaps up grisly cubs or buffalo calves ; and in 

 at least one instance, I have known of it 

 springing on, slaying, and eating a full-grown 

 wolf. I presume the latter was taken by sur- 

 prise. On the other hand, the cougar itself 

 has to fear the big timber wolves when 

 maddened by the winter hunger and gathered 

 in small parties ; while a large grisly would of 

 course be an overmatch for it twice over, 

 though its superior agility puts it beyond the 

 grisly's power to harm it, unless by some un- 

 lucky chance taken in a cave. Nor could a 

 cougar overcome a bull moose, or a bull elk 

 either, if the latter's horns were grown, save 

 by taking it unawares. By choice, with such 

 big game, its victims are the cows and young. 

 The prong-horn rarely comes within reach of 

 its spring ; but it is the dreaded enemy of big- 



