THE COUGAR OR MOUNTAIN LION 305 



appeared over the wall of a stream, which had water 

 in it only in wet seasons. Putting the spurs to the 

 pony, I urged him to the top of the bank, and, dis- 

 mounting, ran forward hoping to bag my lion with 

 birdshot, trusting to a revolver if he showed fight, but 

 I was only in time to see the animal go at a great pace 

 around a distant bend, running in the bed of the stream, 

 which was as dry as a floor. The bank was perpen- 

 dicular or nearly so. Remounting, I galloped forward, 

 keeping along the high bank of the stream, but when 

 I reached the bend I saw another one a long distance 

 ahead, which the cat had already turned, and I soon 

 came to a branch, which I could neither leap over nor 

 descend with my pony. 



It was nearly sundown. 



I was a long way from camp and reluctantly gave 

 the lion up. I should have had no hesitation in giving 

 the cowardly beast my double load of number 6 shot, 

 and had I been able to shoot when I first saw him, I 

 doubt not I could have stopped him. There is a 

 record of one of these large cats being shot with bird- 

 shot, but the animal escaped into the brush and was 

 not immediately followed. The sportsman, a Mr. Don- 

 nelly, of Washington, while out after grouse, came 

 upon several cougars in the road. One remained un- 

 til lie approached near enough to see what it was, and 

 he fired two loads of birdshot into her. She sprang 

 off the road and escaped, as I have stated. Mr. Frank 

 Mossman took the trail of these cougars the next morn- 

 ing, and killed two of them, and says the other one 

 could not be found. The same writer has contributed 

 a number oi excellent cougar tales to Out-door Life 



