6 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



before we arrived, and on several occasions Goff had 

 known them to keep a cougar up a tree overnight and 

 to be still barking around the tree when the hunters at 

 last found them the following morning. Jim always 

 did his share of the killing, being a formidable fighter, 

 though too wary to take hold until one of the professional 

 fighting dogs had seized. He was a great bully with the 

 other dogs, robbing them of their food, and yielding only 

 to Turk. He possessed great endurance, and very stout 

 feet. 



On the whole the most useful dog next to Jim was 

 old Boxer. Age had made Boxer slow, and in addition 

 to this, the first cougar we tackled bit him through one 

 hind leg, so that for the remainder of the trip he went 

 on three legs, or, as Goff put it, " packed one leg " ; but 

 this seemed not to interfere with his appetite, his en- 

 durance, or his desire for the chase. Of all the dogs he 

 was the best to puzzle out a cold trail on a bare hill- 

 side, or in any difficult place. He hardly paid any heed 

 to the others, always insisting upon working out the trail 

 for himself, and he never gave up. Of course, the dogs 

 were much more apt to come upon the cold than upon 

 the fresh trail of a cougar, and it was often necessary 

 for them to spend several hours in working out a track 

 which was at least two days old. Both Boxer and Jim 

 had enormous appetites. Boxer was a small dog and 

 Jim a very large one, and as the relations of the pack 

 among themselves were those of brutal wild-beast selfish- 

 ness, Boxer had to eat very quickly if he expected to get 

 anything when Jim was around. He never ventured to 



