East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1921-09-22


when the hounds are on It's track, ~
first runs, But when hard pressed
takes to a tree, or possibly comes to
bay in thick cover. Its attention is
then so taken up with the hounds that
II can usually be approached and shot
without much difficulty; though some
1 cougars break bay when the hunters
come near, and again make off, when
they can only be stopped by many
large and fierce hounds. Hounds are
often killed in these fights; and II
hungry a cougar will pounce on any
dog for food; yet as | have elsewhere
iclated, / know of one instance in
which a small pack of big savage
hounds killed a cougar unassisted
! General Wade Hampton, who with
(, horse and hound has been the might
! lest hunter America has ever seen, in
forms me that he has killed with his
pack some sixteen cougars during the
| fifty years he has hunted in South
Carolina and Mississippi. believe
they were all killed in the latter state.
General Hampton's hunting has been
chiefly for bear and deer, though his
| pack always follows the lynx and the
| gray fox; and, of course, If good for
tune throws either wolf or a cougar
! in his way 1t Is followed as the game
| of all others. All the cougars he kill
ed were either treed or brought to bay
| in a canebreak by the hounds and
they often handled the pack very
roughly in the death struggle. He
ln
| antagonists than the black bear when
assaiIed with the hunting knife,
weapon of which he was very fond.
However, If his pack had held few
very large, savage dogs, put in purely
for fighting when the quarry was at
hay, ] think the danger would have
been minmized.
Took To Tree
General Hampton followed his game
on horseback, but in following the
cougar with dogs this is by no means
always necessary. Thus Colonel Cecil
Clay. of Washington, killed a cougar
in West Virginia, on foot with only
three or four hounds. The dogs took
the cold trail, and he had to run
many miles over the rough, forest
clad mountains after them. Finally
they drove the cougar up tree,
where he found it, standing among
the branches, in half-ereot position,
its hindfeet on one limb and its fore
feet on another, while it glared down
on the dogs, and switched its tail from
side to side. He shot it through both
shoulders, and down it came in
heap, whereupon the dogs jumped in
and worried it. for its fore-legs were
useless, though il managed to catch
one dog in its jaws and bite him sever
ely.
A wholly exceptional instance of the
kind was related to me by my old
hunting friend Willis. In his youth
in southwest Missouri, he knew a half
witted poor white" who was very
| fond of hunting cOons. He hunted at
night, armed with an axe, and accom-
panied by his dog Penny large, saw
age, half-starved cur. One dark night
the dog treed an animal which he
could not see; so he cut down the tree,
| and Immediately Penny jumped in and
grabbed the beast. The man sung out,
Hold on, Penny" seeing that the dog
! had seized some large, wild animal;
the next moment the brute knocked
the dog endways and at the same in
slant the man split open its head with
an axe. Great was his astonishment,
| and greater still the astonishment of
| the neighbors next day, when it was
| found that he had actually killed a
&c a a
to the trees in a perfectly foolish
manner. My friend, the hunter
Woody, in all his thirty years exper-
ience in the wilds never killed but one
cougar He was lying out in camp
with two dogs at the time; it was about
midnight, the fire was out, and the
night was pitch h-black. He was reused
by the furious barking of his two dogs
who had charged into the gloom, and
were apparently baying at something
in a tree close by. He kindled the fire,
and to his astonishment found the
thing in tree to be a cougar. Com
ing close underneath he shot it with
his revolver, thereupon it leaped
down, ran some forty yards, and
climbed up another tree, where it died
among the branches.
Cowboys Rope En-
If cowboys come across a cougar In
open ground they invariably chase and
try to rope it-as indeed they do with
any wild animal. l have known sew
craI instances of cougars being roped
in this way: in one the animal was
brought into camp alive by two strap
ping cowpunchers.
The cougar sometimes stalks its
prey and sometimes lies in wait for
il beside a game-trail or drinking pool
very rarely indeed does it crouch on
the limb of q tree. When excited by
the presence of game it is sometimes
very bold. Willis once fired at some
big-horn sheep, on a steep montain-
side, he missed, and Immediately after
his shot a cougar made dash into
the midst of the flying band, hoping
to secure victim. The cougar roams
over long distances, and often changes
its hunting ground, perhaps remaining
in one place two or three months, un-
til the game is exhausted, and then
shifting to another. When it does not
lie in wait it usually spends most of
the night, winter and summer in
prowling restiessly around the places
where 1t thinks it may come across
prey, and it will patiently follow an
animals trail. There is no kind of
game. save the full-grown grisly and
buffalo, which it does not at times
assail and master. 1t readily snaps up
grizzly cubs or buffalo calves and in at
least one instance, have known of il