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-black.

He was roused 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 the tree to be a cougar.
Coming 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.
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.

I have known several instances of cougars being roped in this way; in one the animal was brought into camp alive by two strapping cowpunchers.
The cougar sometimes stalks its prey, and sometimes lies in wait for it beside a game-trail or drinking pool--very rarely indeed does it crouch on the limb of a tree.

When excited by the presence of game it is sometimes very bold.