WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 



5 1 



the branches. In the other four cases it sprang out of 

 the tree, head and tail erect, eyes blazing, and the mouth 

 open in a grin of savage hate and anger; but it was prac- 

 tically dead when it touched the ground. 



Although these cougars were mates, they were not of 

 the same color, the female being reddish, while the male 

 was slate-colored. In weighing this male we had to 

 take off the hide and weigh it separately (with the head 

 and paws attached), for our steelyard only went up to 

 150 pounds. When we came to weigh the biggest male 

 we had to take off the quarters as well as the hide. 



Thinking that we had probably exhausted the_cougars 

 around the Keystone Ranch, we spent the next fortnight 

 off on a trip. We carried only what we could put in 

 the small saddle-pockets our baggage being as strictly 

 limited as it ought to be with efficient cavalry who are 

 on an active campaign. We worked hard, but, as so often 

 happens, our luck was not in proportion to our labor. 



The first day we rode to the Mathes brothers' ranch. 

 On the high divides it was very cold, the thermometer 

 standing at nearly twenty degrees below zero. But we 

 were clad for just such weather, and were not uncom- 

 fortable. The three Mathes brothers lived together, with 

 the wives and children of the two married ones. Their 

 ranch was in a very beautiful and wild valley, the pinyon- 

 crowned cliffs rising in walls on either hand. Deer were 

 abundant and often in sight from the ranch doors. At 

 night the gray wolves came down close to the buildings 

 and howled for hours among the precipices, under the 

 light of the full moon. The still cold was intense; but 



