Although not common, cougars are found near my ranch, where the ground is peculiarly favorable for the solitary rifleman; and for ten years I have, off and on, devoted a day or two to their pursuit; but never successfully.

One December a large cougar took up his abode on a densely wooded bottom two miles above the ranch house.
I did not discover his existence until I went there one evening to kill a deer, and found that he had driven all the deer off the bottom, having killed several, as well as a young heifer.

Snow was falling at the time, but the storm was evidently almost over; the leaves were all off the trees and bushes; and I felt that next day there would be such a chance to follow the cougar as fate rarely offered.

In the morning by dawn I was at the bottom, and speedily found his trail.

Following it I came across his bed, among some cedars in a dark, steep gorge, where the buttes bordered the bottom.