OF A RANCHMAN 41 



equal abhorrence the granger who may come 

 in to till the land, and the sheep-owner who 

 drives his flocks over it. The former will 

 gradually fill up the country to our own ex- 

 clusion, while the latter's sheep nibble the 

 grass off so close to the ground as to starve 

 out all other animals. 



Then we suffer some loss in certain re- 

 gions very severe loss from wild beasts, 

 such as cougars, wolves, and lynxes. The 

 latter, generally called " bob-cats/' merely 

 make inroads on the hen-roosts (one of them 

 destroyed half my poultry, coming night 

 after night with most praiseworthy regu- 

 larity), but the cougars and wolves destroy 

 many cattle. 



The wolf is not very common with u; 

 nothing like as plentiful as the little coyote. 

 A few years ago both wolves and coyotes 

 were very numerous on the plains, and as 

 Indians and hunters rarely molested them, 

 they were then very unsuspicious. But all 

 this is changed now. When the cattle-men 

 came in they soon perceived in the wolves 



