COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY WRIGHT & CARLIN. 



DEFIANCE. 



I wish to say to the younger sports- 

 men that my kind of critters does not 

 attack men, under any circumstances, 

 when we can get away. In fact we do 

 not like men at all; and I have heard 

 old mountaineers say, when talking 

 over their campfires, that as many 

 years as they had been in the hills, 

 they never had seen a cussed cat yet, 

 and they wondered where they kept 

 themselves, anyway. 



We have no special range, but roam 

 from the highest peaks to the lowest 

 bottoms. In the day time we sleep in 



COFYR1GHT, 1897, BY WRIGHT & CARLIN. 



READY TO SPRING. 



some dense thicket — occasionally in 

 some cave, in or under the shelving 

 rock, where the sun does not pene- 

 trate. As cool dusk comes on we 

 prowl softly about, looking for some 

 snow-shoe rabbit, or some grouse that 

 has gone to roost on a low limb. 

 Grouse are our favorite food. If there 

 is anything we dote on it is a nice, 

 tender, fat spring grouse. Many a 

 young brood, or old drumming cock 

 have I devoured, as the light grew 

 dim, in the spring evening. It is very 

 amusing to sit and watch an old cock 

 grouse, as he swells and struts along 

 his log; and when he has his thoughts 

 full of his sweetheart, and begins to 

 drum, to just make about 3 jumps, and 

 then with one stroke to crush the life 

 and conceit all. out of him. 



Of course squirrels, martens, etc., 

 are all acceptable, when they come my 

 way. I am also fond of the remains 

 of deer, or other animals, killed by 

 hunters, and I make a business of 



90 



