206 A SPORTING PARADISE 



of whose presence he is ever aware. The cougar 

 is as large, as powerful, and as formidably armed 

 as the Indian panther, and quite as well able to 

 attack a man: yet the instances of its having 

 done so are exceedingly rare. But it is foolish 

 to deny that such attacks on human beings never 

 occur ... It cannot be too often repeated that 

 we must never lose sight of the individual 

 variation in character and conduct among wild 

 beasts." 



Referring to the cry of the cougar, Mr. 

 Roosevelt states : " One night, while camped in 

 a heavily timbered coulie near Kildeer Mountains, 

 where, as their footprints showed, the beasts 

 were plentiful, I twice heard a loud, wailing 

 scream ringing through the impenetrable gloom 

 which shrouded the hills around us. My com- 

 panion, an old plainsman, said that this was the 

 cry of the cougar prowling for its prey. Certainly 

 no man could well listen to a stranger or wilder 

 sound." 



This loud, wailing scream corresponds with 

 the cries I heard in Muskoka. Mr. Roosevelt 

 refers also to the noiseless step of the cougar : 



a I was with a pack train in the Rockies, and one 

 day, feeling lazy, and as we had no meat in camp, 



