192 TRUE BEAR STORIES.

own butchering and would not touch mut-
ton that was killed for them by anybody
else. A cougar raided a camp one night,
sprang upon the sheep from a willow
thicket and killed three within twenty
yards of the sleeping herder. The fastidi-
ous cougar cut their throats, sucked their
blood and left their carcasses at the edge
of the thicket without eating the meat.
But the bears would not touch what the
cougar left.

Shortly after this the herders reported
that the bears were avoiding the sheep and
passing around the bands without making
an attack.

Apparently bruin had made a miscalcu-
lation in his calendar and was keeping
Lent in the wrong season, but his erratic
conduct was explained when some of the
herders admitted that they had put strych-
nine into several carcasses. Some of the
bears had got doses of poison large enough
to make them mortally unwell, but had
survived and sworn off eating mutton.