THE COUGAE. 413 



of the hunter, dogging his footsteps for miles; but let him 

 take the back track, and he will soon discover that the Cou- 

 gar has again doubled on his trail. 



In order to show that the Cougar is not the cowardly or 

 nocturnal animal that the naturalists claim it to be, I will 

 relate a few instances in which it has attacked people in 

 day-time. One of these instances illustrates a remarkable 

 case of boyish heroism. 



In the spring of 1886, the children of a Mr. Farnham, 

 who resides a few miles from Olympia, Washington, were 

 returning from school, when Walter, the eldest, a boy of 

 twelve, noticed something that he thought was a large yel- 

 low dog, trotting in the road behind them. They paid no 

 attention to it, as large mongrel dogs, of this color, abound 

 everywhere in the vicinity of the Indian camps, but played 

 leisurely along, as is the custom of children the world over. 

 The youngest boy, a chubby little chap of six summers, who 

 was behind his brothers, suddenly came rolling along in 

 front of his brothers, and a moment later the great cat 

 sprung over the heads of the two astonished boys, seized 

 the little fellow in its mouth, and with a spring vanished 

 from sight in the bushes. 



A cry of terror rose from the lips of the now terrified 

 boys, that was answered by one of pain, fright, and agony 

 from the jungle. The elder brother did not deliberate on 

 what to do. He had no weapon other than an empty brandy- 

 bottle, in which he had carried milk for their dinner, and with 

 this he rushed into tli^. bushes. He saw his little brother 

 lying prostrate, grasping a small tree with both hands, and 

 holding on with the desperation of despair, while the 

 Cougar, with his fangs luckily embedded only in the child's 

 clothing, was trying to break the deathlike grij) with which 

 the child held to the tree. With a scream, Walter threw 

 himself on the Cougar, beat it over the head with the bottle 

 until the latter was shattered into fragments, and then with 

 the ragged edges of the neck of the bottle, which he still 

 held in his hand, he endeavored to cut out the Cougars 



