WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 37 



as for their quarry. Three of the dogs were badly 

 scratched, and Turk had been bitten through one foreleg, 

 and Boxer through one hind leg. 



As will be seen by the measurements given before, 

 this was much the smallest full-grown cougar we got. It 

 was also one of the oldest, as its teeth showed, and it 

 gave me a false idea of the size of cougars; although I 

 knew they varied in size I was not prepared for the wide 

 variation we actually found. 



The fighting dogs were the ones that enabled me to 

 use the knife. All three went straight for the head, and 

 when they got hold they kept their jaws shut, worrying 

 and pulling, and completely absorbing the attention of 

 the cougar, so as to give an easy chance for the death- 

 blow. The hounds meanwhile had seized the cougar be- 

 hind, and Jim, with his alligator jaws, probably did as 

 much damage as Turk. However, neither in this nor in 

 any other instance, did any one of the dogs manage to get 

 its teeth through the thick skin. When cougars fight 

 among themselves their claws and fangs leave great scars, 

 but their hides are too thick for the dogs to get their 

 teeth through. On the other hand, a cougar's jaws have 

 great power, and dogs are frequently killed by a single 

 bite, the fangs being driven through the brain or spine; 

 or they break a dog's leg or cut the big blood-vessels of 

 the throat. 



I had been anxious to get a set of measurements and 

 weights of cougars to give to Dr. Hart Merriam. Ac- 

 cordingly I was carrying a tape, while GofT, instead of 

 a rifle, had a steelyard in his gun scabbard. We weighed 



i -Tin 



