THE COUGAR OR MOUNTAIN LION 309 



rado especially to hunt cougars, and described the hunt 

 in two papers published in Scribner s Magazine,^ from 

 one of which I quote the following, which will further 

 illustrate the chase: 



" Owing to the character of the ground we could 

 give the hounds no assistance, but they finally puzzled 

 out the trail for themselves. We were now given a 

 good illustration of the impossibility of jumping a 

 cougar without dogs, even when in a general way its 

 haunt is known. We rode along the hillside, and quar- 

 tered it to and fro, on the last occasion coming down a 

 spur where we passed within two or three rods of the 

 brush in which the cougar was actually lying; but she 

 never moved and it was impossible to see her. When 

 we finally reached the bottom, the dogs had disentan- 

 gled the trail ; and they passed behind us at a good 

 rate, going up almost where we had come down. Even 

 as we looked we saw the cougar rise from her lair, only 

 fifty yards or so ahead of them, her red hide showing 

 bright in the sun. It was a very pretty run to watch 

 while it lasted. She left them behind at first, but after 

 a quarter of a mile they put her up a pinyon. Ap- 

 proaching cautiously — for the climbing was hard work 

 and I did not wish to frighten her out of the tree if it 

 could be avoided, lest she might make such a run as 

 that of the preceding evening — I was able to shoot her 

 through the heart. She died in the branches, and I 

 climbed the tree to throw her down." 



Roosevelt says : " The only skill needed in such 

 shooting is in killing the cougar outright so as to save 

 the dogs. Six times on the hunt I shot the cougar 



* " With the Cougar Hounds," Scribner's, October-November, 1901. 



