WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 5 



up singly and probably be overcome one after another. 

 Being bold dogs they were always especially eager after 

 wolf and coyote, and when they came across the trail of 

 either, though they would not follow it, they would 

 usually challenge loudly. If the circumstances were such 

 that they could overtake the wolf in a body, it could make 

 no effective fight against them, no matter how large and 

 powerful. On the one or two occasions when this had 

 occurred, the pack had throttled " Isegrim " without get- 

 ting a scratch. 



As the dogs did all the work, we naturally became 

 extremely interested in them, and rapidly grew to know 

 the voice, peculiarities, and special abilities of each. 

 There were eight hounds and four fighting dogs. The 

 hounds were of the ordinary Eastern type, used from the 

 Adirondacks to the Mississippi and the Gulf in the chase 

 of deer and fox. Six of them were black and tan and 

 two were mottled. They differed widely in size and 

 voice. The biggest, and, on the whole, the most useful, 

 was Jim, a very fast, powerful, and true dog with a great 

 voice. When the animal was treed or bayed, Jim was 

 especially useful because he never stopped barking; and 

 we could only find the hounds, when at bay, by listening 

 for the sound of their voices. Among the cliffs and preci- 

 pices the pack usually ran out of sight and hearing if 

 the chase lasted any length of time. Their business was 

 to bring the quarry to bay, or put it up a tree, and then 

 to stay with it and make a noise until the hunters came 

 up. During this hunt there were two or three occasions 

 when they had a cougar up a tree for at least three hours 



