33 6 The Wilderness Hunter. 



in the open, when startled, and the way in which it lies 

 motionless in its lair even when a man is within twenty 

 yards, that render it so difficult to still-hunt. 



In fact it is next to impossible with any hope of suc- 

 cess regularly to hunt the cougar without dogs or bait. 

 Most cougars that are killed by still-hunters are shot by 

 accident while the man is after other game. This has been 

 my own experience. Although not common, cougars are 

 found near my ranch, where the ground is peculiarly fav- 

 orable for the solitary rifleman ; and for ten years I have, 

 off and on, devoted a day or two to their pursuit ; but 

 never successfully. One December a large cougar took 

 up his abode on a densely wooded bottom two miles above 

 the ranch house. I did not discover his existence until I 

 went there one evening to kill a deer, and found that he 

 had driven all the deer off the bottom, having killed sev- 

 eral, as well as a young heifer. Snow was falling at the 

 time, but the storm was evidently almost over ; the leaves 

 were all off the trees and bushes ; and I felt that next day 

 there would be such a chance to follow the cougar as fate 

 rarely offered. In the morning by dawn I was at the bot- 

 tom, and speedily found his trail. Following it I came 

 across his bed, among some cedars in a dark, steep gorge, 

 where the buttes bordered the bottom. He had evidently 

 just left it, and I followed his tracks all day. But I never 

 caught a glimpse of him, and late in the afternoon I 

 trudged wearily homewards. When I went out next 

 morning I found that as soon as I abandoned the chase, 

 my quarry, according to the uncanny habit sometimes dis- 

 played by his kind, coolly turned likewise, and deliberately 



