WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 49 



our victim, and made up our minds not to try to skin him 

 until the morning. Then we led down our horses, with 

 some difficulty, into the snow-covered valley, mounted 

 them, and cantered home to the ranch, under the cold and 

 brilliant moon, through a white wonderland of shimmer- 

 ing light and beauty. 



Next morning we came back as early as possible, in- 

 tending first to skin the male and then to hunt up the 

 female. A quarter of a mile before we reached the car- 

 cass we struck her fresh trail in the snow of the valley. 

 Calling all the dogs together and hustling them for- 

 ward, we got them across the trail without their paying 

 any attention to it; for we wanted to finish the job of 

 skinning before taking up the hunt. However, when we 

 got off our horses and pulled the cougar down to a flat 

 place to skin it, Nellie, who evidently remembered that 

 there had been another cougar besides the one we had 

 accounted for, started away on her own account while 

 we were not looking. The first thing we knew we heard 

 her giving tongue on the mountains above us, in such 

 rough country that there was no use in trying to head her 

 off. Accordingly we jumped on the horses again, rode 

 down to where we had crossed the trail and put the 

 whole pack on it. After crossing the valley the cougar 

 had moved along the ledges of a great spur or chain of 

 foothills, and as this prevented the dogs going too fast 

 we were able to canter alongside them up the valley, 

 watching them and listening to their chiming. We 

 finally came to a large hillside bare of snow, much broken 

 with rocks, among which grew patches of brush and scat- 



