52 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



I could not resist going out for half an hour at a time 

 to listen to them. To me their baying, though a very 

 eerie and lonesome sound, full of vaguely sinister associa- 

 tions, has, nevertheless, a certain wild music of its own 

 which is far from being without charm. 



We did not hear the cougars calling, for they are cer- 

 tainly nothing like as noisy as wolves; yet the Mathes 

 brothers had heard them several times, and once one of 

 them had crept up and seen the cougar, which remained 

 in the same place for many minutes, repeating its cry 

 continually. The Mathes had killed but two cougars, 

 not having any dogs trained to hunt them. One of these 

 was killed under circumstances which well illustrate the 

 queer nature of the animal. The three men, with one of 

 their two cattle dogs, were walking up the valley not half 

 a mile above the ranch house, when they saw a cougar 

 crossing in front of them, a couple of hundred yards off. 

 As soon as she saw them she crouched flat down with 

 her head toward them, remaining motionless. Two, with 

 the dog, stayed where they were, while the other ran 

 back to the ranch house for a rifle and for the other dog. 

 No sooner had he gone than the cougar began deliber- 

 ately to crawl toward the men who were left. She came 

 on slowly but steadily, crouched almost flat to the ground. 

 The two unarmed men were by no means pleased with 

 her approach. They waved their hands and jumped 

 about and shouted; but she kept approaching, although 

 slowly, and was well within a hundred yards when the 

 other brother arrived, out of breath, accompanied by the 

 other dog. At sight of him she jumped up, ran off a 



