WATER TRAILS OF THE CERISO 



posed fronts of westward facing hills, and 

 lie down in companies. Usually by the end 

 of the summer the cattle have been driven 

 or gone of their own choosing to the moun- 

 tain meadows. One year a maverick year- 

 ling, strayed or overlooked by the vaqueros, 

 kept on until the season's end, and so be- 

 trayed another visitor to the spring that 

 else I might have missed. On a certain 

 morning the half-eaten carcass lay at the 

 foot of the black rock, and in moist earth 

 by the rill of the spring, the foot-pads of a 

 cougar, puma, mountain lion, or whatever 

 the beast is .rightly called. The kill must 

 have been made early in the evening, for it 

 appeared that the cougar had been twice to 

 the spring ; and since the meat-eater drinks 

 little until he has eaten, he must have fed 

 and drunk, and after an interval of lying 

 up in the black rock, had eaten and drunk 

 36 



