THE COUGAR 
He felt 6afe and was stepping deliberately along, often stopping, 
often walking up some small point and surveying the scenery. He 
moved in an easy rolling fashion, and turned his head importantly. 
Then he lay down in the sun, but saw us on our way to him and bounced 
off. We came to the place where he had jumped down sheer twenty feet 
at least. His hoof- tracks were on the edge, and in the gravel below 
the heavy scatter he made in landing; and then — hasty tracks round 
a corner of rock and no more goat that day.” 
Even in the winter the white goat does not leave his native crags but 
subsists on the lichen-like moss and dryas which it finds amongst the 
crevices. In the autumn, soon after the first snowfall, they often move 
right through the forests to other cliffs and in so doing sometimes fall a 
victim to the grizzly bear who, according to the Indians of Cassiar, makes 
a practice of hunting them at this season. No doubt white goats are very 
much wilder in Montana and Idaho, where they have been hunted for the 
past thirty years more severely than in British Columbia and Alaska, where 
they are at all times very tame. But even in out-of-the-way places it is not 
possible to approach goats from below and a detour to get above them is 
necessary. A favourite trick of theirs, and other mountain game, is to 
remain quite still until the hunter passes out of sight behind some object, 
the goat then immediately makes off up-hill and may never stop until it 
has reached some distant range. Perhaps the easiest way to obtain a couple 
of good specimens of the Rocky Mountain goat is to go direct to Vancouver, 
where Mr Bryan Williams can always give the latest information about 
the game. They are to be found in the coastal ranges within one day of 
Vancouver. A regular resort is the head of Jervis Inlet, or on a Bute Inlet, 
where they can be spied from a motor launch on the sea. They do not exist 
on any of the Pacific Islands except on Pitt Island close to the mainland. 
The best time to hunt goats is in late September, when they may still 
be spied below the snow line and their coats are in good condition. 
THE COUGAR 
The cougar ( Felis concolor ), or, as it is sometimes called, the puma, 
mountain lion, panther or painter, is still very common in the Rocky 
Mountains and to the west of them. It also exists south, in Texas and 
Mexico and right through South America to Patagonia, where a larger 
form is found. 
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