ead first, something he would not have been able to do
had the tree been upright. The hounds were ready for him, but wisely
attacked in the rear. Realizing he had been shooting fine shot at the
animal, Jones began a hurried search for a shell loaded with ball. The
lion made for him, compelling him to dodge behind trees. Even though
the hounds kept nipping the cougar, the persistent fellow still pursued
the hunter. At last Jones found the right shell, just as the cougar
reached for him. Major, the leader of the hounds, darted bravely in,
and grasped the leg of the beast just in the nick of time. This enabled
Jones to take aim and fire at close range, which ended the fight. Upon
examination, it was discovered the cougar had been half-blinded by the
fine shot, which accounted for the ineffectual attempts he had made to
catch Jones.

The mountain lion rarely attacks a human being for the purpose of
eating. When hungry he will often follow the tracks of people, and
under favorable circumstances may ambush them. In the park where game
is plentiful, no one has ever known a cougar to follow the trail of a
person; but outside the park lions have been known to follow hunters,
and particularly stalk little children. The Davis family, living a few
miles north of the park, have had children pursued to the very doors of
their cabin. And other families relate similar experiences. Jones heard
of only one fatality, but he believes that if the children were left
alone in the woods, the cougars would creep closer and closer, and when
assured there was no danger, would spring to kill.

Jones never heard the cry of a cougar in the National Park, which
strange circumstance, considering the great number of the animals
there, he believed to be on account of the abundance of game. But he
had heard it when a boy in Illinois, and when a man all over the West,
and the cry was always the same, weird and wild, like the scream of a
terrified woman. He did not understand the significance of the cry,
unless it meant hunger, or the wailing mourn of a lioness for her
murdered cubs.

The destructiveness of this savage species was murderous. Jones came
upon one old Tom's den, where there was a pile of nineteen elk, mostly
yearlings. Only five or six had been eaten. Jones hunted this old
fellow for months, and found that the lion killed on the average three
animals a week. The hounds got him up at length, and chased him to the
Yellowstone River, which he