THE BEAR “MONARCH.” 189

Wherever bait was dragged over the
mountain, and it was dragged many miles
for the purpose of enticing bear to the trap,
the lions followed the trail, but they would
not go into the trap. Still it is not safe
to generalize from this fact and assume
that the cougar or mountain lion never will
go into a trap, for he is a most erratic and
uncertain beast. Sometimes he is an ar-
rant coward, and again he is as bold as a
genuine lion. Generally a dog will keep
cougars away from a camp or house, but
once in a while the cougar hunts the dog
and kills him.

One afternoon a cougar jumped into Joe
Dye’s dooryard at his ranch on the Sespe,
picked up Joe’s baby and sprang over the
fence with it. Joe seized his rifle and shot
the animal as it ran, and when the cougar
felt the sting of the bullet he dropped the
baby and ran up the mountain. He had
seized the baby’s clothes only, and the lit-
tle one was not hurt. The next night the
cougar returned, captured Joe’s hound,