THE COUGAR OR MOUNTAIN LION 307 



attorney, were held up on the road by a large lion, 

 who stood in the road and refused to move on, the 

 team refusing to go farther. The sheriff secured a 

 club and some stones, and throwing these at the beast, 

 he moved off of the road. 



Mr. P. S. Bonebrake has recently described a cougar 

 hunt in the Coast Range.* Having camped on the En- 

 cino, he says, they were pleased to hear, from some 

 sheep-herders, that two nights before a pair of lions, 

 accompanied by two kittens, had jumped the low brush 

 enclosure within which the sheep were bedded, and 

 had killed four sheep before they were driven away, 

 which was accomplished by waving lanterns and firing 

 an old musket, assisted by the barking of dogs. Upon 

 receiving the information, the sportsmen resolved to 

 try their dogs in a long canyon west of the slope where 

 the sheep were bedded, and retired for the night. The 

 following morning they were met by an excited herder, 

 who informed them that the lions had entered the cor- 

 ral in the night and killed sixteen sheep. The dogs 

 took the trail in the canyon, and before long caught 

 and held a large " Tom " on the top of a huge boulder. 

 Mr. Bonebrake says: 



"After considerable debate as to how to get him 

 down ('Tenderfoot' the night before being skeptical of 

 the hounds' fighting abilities and anxious to see a fight), 

 I decided to scare him out. I fired two shots from my 

 .30 short-barrelled Marlin in his immediate rear with no 

 effect. I unhitched the third a trifle closer, and, as the 

 fragments of splintered rock hit him, he bounded clear 

 of the dogs and paused for the briefest space, as if un- 



* Western Field. 



