102 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



they believe in its truth that they could not be induced to 

 camp in the valley on any account, or even to speak of the 

 incident except with bated breath, for it is an article of faith 

 among the red men that every time a dead person's name is 

 mentioned, he or she turns over in the grave, and punishes 

 severely those who are guilty of such a sacrilegious act as to 

 disturb the repose of the departed. 



I asked the Indians if they ever had any personal encounters 

 with a cougar, and they replied they had not, but that an 

 acquaintance of theirs was attacked by one without any cause 

 while he was searching in the woods for some strayed horses. 

 The animal jumped at his throat and knocked him down, but 

 as he was armed with a loaded single-barrelled shot-gun, he 

 sent its contents into the brute's stomach, and this caused it 

 to loosen its hold. Struggling to his feet, he attempted to 

 run away, but, wounded severely as the cougar was, it leaped 

 upon him once more, and another fierce struggle ensued, the 

 Indian using his gun against the claws and fangs of his foe. 

 After a desperate battle, in which the gun was destroyed, the 

 red man came off victorious, but he was so badly wounded 

 that his life was despaired of for several weeks. His strong 

 constitution prevailed at length, however, and he recovered, 

 but he was a mere wreck of what he had formerly been. In 

 answer to another query, the most experienced replied that the 

 cougar never chased its prey but jumped on it from the con- 

 cealment of a thicket or the bough of a tree, and he doubted 

 if it could follow any animal by scent, a statement which I 

 am rather inclined to believe, notwithstanding the assertions 

 of some writers who say that it has trailed them as a hound 

 would a hare or a fox. I heard of other incidents in the West 

 which prove that the animal is very dangerous when hungry or 

 wounded; but if it will attack man without any seemingly 

 direct provocation, it is an easy matter to understand the 

 motive therefor. 



It is naturally so timid and cautious, and so far from large 

 settlements, that it, is only met by accident, unless a person 

 enters the deep recesses of the f'orot ; but, in severe winters it 

 leaves its concealment and makes bold raids on the sheep, pigs, 



