44 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



during the course of which Stewart's horse turned a 

 somersault. Without our knowledge the dogs changed 

 to the fresh trail of a cougar, which they ran into its den 

 in another cut bank. When we reached the place they 

 had gone in after it, Baldy dropping into a hole at the 

 top of the bank, while the others crawled into the main 

 entrance, some twenty-five yards off at the bottom. It 

 was evidently a very rough house inside, and above the 

 baying, yelping, and snarling of the dogs we could hear 

 the rumbling overtone of the cougar's growl. On this 

 day we had taken along Queen, the white bull bitch, to 

 " enter " her at cougar. It was certainly a lively ex- 

 perience for a first entry. We reached the place in time 

 to keep Jim and the hound bitches out of the hole. It 

 was evident that the dogs could do nothing with the cou- 

 gar inside. They could only come at it in front, and 

 under such circumstances its claws and teeth made the 

 odds against them hopeless. Every now and then it 

 would charge, driving them all back, and we would then 

 reach in, seize a dog and haul him out. At intervals there 

 would be an awful yelling and a hound would come out 

 bleeding badly, quite satisfied, and without the slightest 

 desire to go in again. Poor Baldy was evidently killed 

 inside. Queen, Turk, and Tony were badly clawed and 

 bitten, and we finally got them out too; Queen went in 

 three times, and came out on each occasion with a fresh 

 gash or bite; Turk was, at the last, the only one really 

 anxious to go in again. Then we tried to smoke out 

 the cougar, for as one of the dogs had gotten into the 

 cave through an upper entrance, we supposed the cougar 



