60 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



the ridge, the other dogs following. Immediately after- 

 ward they jumped the cougar. 



We had been waiting below to see which direction the 

 chase would take and now put spurs to our horses and 

 galloped up the ravine, climbing the hillside on our right 

 so as to get a better view of what was happening. A few 

 hundred yards of this galloping and climbing brought us 

 again in sight of the hounds. They were now barking 

 treed and were clustered around a pinyon below the ridge 

 crest on the side hill opposite us. The two fighters, Turk 

 and Queen, who had been following at our horses' heels, 

 appreciated what had happened as soon as we did, and, 

 leaving us, ran down into the valley and began to work 

 their way through the deep snow up the hillside opposite, 

 toward where the hounds were. Ours was an ideal posi- 

 tion for seeing the whole chase. In a minute the cougar 

 jumped out of the tree down among the hounds, who 

 made no attempt to seize him, but followed him as soon 

 as he had cleared their circle. He came down hill at a 

 great rate and jumped over a low cliff, bringing after 

 him such an avalanche of snow that it was a moment 

 before I caught sight of him again, this time crouched 

 on a narrow ledge some fifteen or twenty feet below 

 the brink from which he had jumped, and about as far 

 above the foot of the cliff, where the steep hill-slope 

 again began. The hounds soon found him and came 

 along the ledge barking loudly, but not venturing near 

 where he lay facing them, with his back arched like 

 a great cat. Turk and Queen were meanwhile working 

 their way up hill. Turk got directly under the ledge 



