OF A RANCHMAN 



49 



hunting over light snow, I came across a 

 place where two bucks, while fighting, had 

 been stalked up to by a cougar which pulled 

 down one and tore him in pieces. The cou- 

 gar's gait is silent and stealthy to an extraor- 

 dinary degree ; the look of the animal when 

 creeping up to his prey has been wonder- 

 fully caught by the sculptor, Kemeys, in his 

 bronzes: "The Still Hunt" and "The 

 Silent Footfall." 



I have never myself killed a cougar, 

 though my brother shot one in Texas, while 

 still-hunting some deer, which the cougar it- 

 self was after. It never attacks man, and 

 even when hard pressed and wounded turns 

 to bay with extreme reluctance, and at the 

 first chance again seeks safety in flight. This 

 was certainly not the case in old times, but the 

 nature of the animal has been so changed by 

 constant contact with rifle-bearing hunters, 

 that timidity toward them has become a he- 

 reditary trait deeply engrained in its nature. 

 When the continent was first settled, and for 

 long afterward, the cougar was quite as dan- 



