16 



THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



EXPLOITS OF "BOB" AND "KING" 



Famous Bear Dogs — Miss Esther Howard, who Killed Large Cougar Treed 



by These Dogs 



By Everett Earle Stanard^ Brownsville, Oregon 



KING" and "Bob" are the intrepid leaders of a pack of varmint- 

 dogs belonging to a physician and sportsman who lives in the 

 Willamette Valley, Oregon, in a little village just a few miles 

 from the bear, coyote, cougar and wild cat country of the Cascade Moun- 

 tains. These two dogs probably have more predatory animals and var- 

 mints to their credit than any other hounds in the whole Pacific North- 

 west. They have hunted up and down the wild Cascade ranges and in 

 the thickly wooded coastal mountains. In fact there is not a bit of 

 game country in Oregon where they have not trailed and fought with 

 wonderful success. Their owner has: collected many a dollar in bounties 

 on the coyotes, wolves, bobcats and bears that these trailing and fight- 

 ing dogs have brought to bay, engaged and heldj until the hunters could 

 come up. The exploits of King and Bob are well worth recounting. 



In a mid-winter hunt of one week's duration, these dogs, aided by 

 a pup, "Trailer, " brought to bay or treed a total of sixteen bobcats, 

 and by way of good measure captured two full-grown coyotes. The 

 snow was deep in the mountains' and the boys who were in charge of 

 the dogs say that the hunt was the most thrilling of any in which they 

 have engaged. Some of the cats were large and fierce, and showed so 

 much fight that the hounds were often in considerable danger. This 

 hunt was one of the few in which King and Bob have escaped unscathed. 



Another lucky hunt occurred in September, 1917, when the dogs suc- 

 cessfully surrounded and held at bay a cougar that could easily 

 have torn the two fighters to bits. But King and Bob are sire and son 

 and fight shoulder to shoulder. In this instance, the great puma did 

 not know which one of the dogs to attack, and so it finally took to a 

 tree. Then sixteen-year-old Esther Howard, a daughter of Dr. E. W. 

 Howard, who owns the courageous and belligerent hounds, rode up on 



