WITH A MORMON GUIDE 227 



finally stopped I realized that the climb down and 

 back again was going to be no easy task. Taking 

 a little shorter route, but decidedly a steeper one 

 than I had ascended by, it was not long before I 

 reached my first little prize of the mountains. 



A short distance from where the deer lay I 

 noticed the ground bore evidence of a violent 

 struggle. That one of the nightly tragedies of 

 the wilderness had been enacted here was quite 

 evident, and upon close examination I found 

 the carcass of a large buck which had been just 

 recently slain. That the victim had struggled 

 desperately the torn-up ground and strewn hair 

 plainly showed. The slayer had covered its vic- 

 tim carefully with dead grass and brush. This 

 signified to us that it was the work of none other 

 than the death-dealing cougar, who at that mo- 

 ment no doubt was lying up near by in some 

 well-chosen retreat, waiting only to steal forth 

 again under the cover of night to further satisfy 

 his inexorable greed upon his recent victim. 



"We'll be down here at the crack of dawn to- 

 morrow with the hound pack," said Hi, "and that 

 fellow's scalp will be hanging up in camp to-mor- 

 row night." 



We cleaned and swung my buck to a tree, in- 

 tending to pack him in after the run on the 



