420 BIG GAME OF NOKTH AMERICA. 



versed with claim that at certain periods the female Cougar 

 becomes very bold, and loses the instinct of prey in the desire 

 for companionship, but that when she finds how helpless an 

 unarmed mortal is, she proceeds at once to destroy him. 



The following incident was related to me by Hon. Orange 

 Jacobs, ex-delegate to Congress from Washington: 



"In 1864,'' said the Judge, "I was out with a party, 

 high up in the Cascade Mountains. Our party consisted of 

 nine persons, including myself. Our camp was at the end 

 of a long, narrow prairie, which was about a mile from the 

 Santiam River, one of the principal eastern tributaries of 

 the Willamette. Deer were plentiful, but they kept con- 

 cealed in the day-time, in the almost impenetrable brush 

 and ferns. One of our party had twice started a fine buck, 

 that on each occasion had run across the upper end of the 

 prairie toward the river. Meat was getting scarce in camp, 

 and that buck we must have. Your humble servant was 

 accounted the best running-shot in the party, and was 

 accordingly sent to the upper end of the prairie to take a 

 stand, while the others beat the brush to start the antlered 

 beauty. 



"The plan succeeded, and he bounded across the prairie 

 some seven or eight rods from me. I fired, and shot him 

 through the thigh. He plunged on, however, through the 

 dense brush toward the river. I followed slowly after him, 

 clambering over and crawling under logs, believing that I 

 would find him dead or dying at the foot of the first em- 

 bankment that he descended. I soon came to a dry gully. 

 I approached the brink carefully, and looking over the bank, 

 there not more than twenty feet from me lay the Deer, 

 dead. But immediately over him stood a large male Cou- 

 gar, gazing intently in the eye of the Deer. I raised my 

 rifle, took a quick aim, fired, and the Cougar fell dead. 

 For some unaccountable reason, I did not reload my rifie, 

 but quickly slid down the bank, taking my gun with me. I 

 straightened out the Cougar' s tail; as he was a very large 

 one, I \vas in the act of pausing to get his length, when, to 



