WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 53 



couple of hundred yards, went up a tree, and was killed. 

 I do not suppose she would have attacked the men; but 

 as there was an unpleasant possibility that she might, they 

 both felt distinctly more comfortable when their brother 

 rejoined them with the rifle. 



There was a good deal of snowy weather while we 

 were at the Mathes ranch, but we had fair luck, kill- 

 ing two cougars. It was most comfortable, for the ranch 

 was clean and warm, and the cooking delicious. It does 

 not seem to me that I ever tasted better milk and butter, 

 hot biscuits, rice, potatoes, pork and bulberry and wild- 

 plum jam ; and of course the long days on horseback in the 

 cold weather gave an edge to our appetites. One stormy 

 day we lost the hounds, and we spent most of the next day 

 in finding such of them as did not come straggling in of 

 their own accord. The country was very rough, and it 

 was astounding to see some of the places up and down 

 which we led the horses. Sometimes I found that my 

 horse climbed rather better than I did, for he would come 

 up some awkward-looking slope with such a rush that I 

 literally had to scramble on all-fours to get out of his 

 way. 



There was no special incident connected with killing 

 either of these two cougars. In one case Goff himself 

 took the lead in working out the trail and preventing the 

 hounds getting off after bobcats. In the other case the 

 trail was fresher and the dogs ran it by themselves, get- 

 ting into a country where we could not follow; it was 

 very rough, and the cliffs and gorges rang with their 

 baying. In both cases they had the cougar treed for about 



