1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



257 



WHISKEY JACKS. 



one day it was generally possible to find 

 it within a few hundred yards of the 

 same spot the next day, and certainly 

 not more than a mile or two off. There 

 were severe frosts at night, and occa- 

 sionally light flurries of snow; but the 

 hardy beasts evidently cared nothing 

 for any but heavy storms, and seemed 

 to prefer to lie in the snow rather than 

 upon the open ground. They fed at 

 irregular hours throughout the day, 

 just like cattle; one band might be ly- 

 ing down while another was feeding. 

 While traveling they usually went al- 

 most in single file. Evidently the win- 

 ter had weakened them, and they were 

 not in condition for running, for on the 

 one or two occasions when I wanted to 

 see them close up I ran right into them 

 on horseback, both on level plains and 

 going up hill along the sides of rather 

 steep mountains. One band in partic- 

 ular I practically rounded up for John 

 Burroughs, finally getting them to stand 

 in a huddle while he and I sat on our 

 horses less than fifty yards off. After 



they had run a little distance they 

 opened their mouths wide and showed 

 evident signs of distress. 



We came across a good many car- 

 casses. Two, a bull and a cow, had died 

 from scab. Over half the remainder 

 had evidently perished from cold or 

 starvation. The others, including a 

 bull, three cows, and a score of year- 

 lings, had been killed by cougars. In 

 the park the cougar is at present their 

 only animal foe. The cougars were 

 preying on nothing but elk in the Yel- 

 lowstone Valley, and kept hanging 

 about the neighborhood of the big bands. 

 Evidently they usually selected some 

 outlying yearling, stalked it as it lay or 

 as it fed, and seized it by the head and 

 throat. The bull which they killed 

 was in a little open valley by himself, 

 many miles from any other elk. The 

 cougar which killed it, judging from its 

 tracks, was a very large male. As the 

 elk were evidently rather too numerous 

 for the feed, I do not think the cougars 

 were doing any damage. 



