36 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



is a rabbit right here, and I want to take his picture." 

 Accordingly we waited, the cougar not fifty yards off and 

 the dogs yelling and trying to get up the tree after it, 

 while Stewart crept up to the rabbit and got a kodak some 

 six feet distant. Then we resumed our march toward the 

 tree, and the cougar, not liking the sight of the reinforce- 

 ments, jumped out. She came down just outside the pack 

 and ran up hill. So quick was she that the dogs failed 

 to seize her, and for the first fifty yards she went a great 

 deal faster than they did. Both in the jump and in the 

 run she held her tail straight out behind her; I found 

 out afterward that sometimes one will throw its tail 

 straight in the air, and when walking along, when first 

 roused by the pack, before they are close, will, if angry, 

 lash the tail from side to side, at the same time grinning 

 and snarling. 



In a minute the cougar went up another tree, but, 

 as we approached, again jumped down, and on this oc- 

 casion, after running a couple of hundred yards, the dogs 

 seized it. The worry was terrific ; the growling, snarling, 

 and yelling rang among the rocks; and leaving our horses 

 we plunged at full speed through the snow down the 

 rugged ravine in which the fight was going on. It was 

 a small though old female, only a few pounds heavier 

 than either Turk or Jim, and the dogs had the upper 

 hand when we arrived. They would certainly have 

 killed it unassisted, but as it was doing some damage to 

 the pack, and might at any moment kill a dog, I ended 

 the struggle by a knife-thrust behind the shoulder. To 

 shoot would have been quite as dangerous for the dogs 



