t could
climb these cliffs, and we were surprised later on to see the quantity
of game of various kinds that came into this valley to winter, such as
Elk, Deer, and Antelope. I never, before or since, have seen so many
Wild Cats, or Bob Cats, as they were called at that time, and also some
cougars.

I remember one little circumstance that occurred later on; it was about
the middle of the afternoon; we had all been to our traps and had
returned to the cabin with our furs. Jim said, "Will, we will stretch
your furs if you will go and shoot a deer for supper."

This suited me, so I took my gun and went outside the door to clean it.
Just as I had got through, Jonnie West looked out and said, "Look, Will,
there is your deer now; you won't have to hunt him."

I looked, and sure enough, there he was, in about a hundred yards of the
cabin. Jim Bridger fired at him and knocked him down, but he got up and
ran into a little bunch of brush. I ran to the spot, thinking he was
only wounded and that I should have to shoot him again. When I reached
the brush, to my surprise, I found five big wildcats, and they all
came for me at once. I fired at the leader, and then I did some lively
running myself. As soon as I got out of the brush, I called the boys,
and we got the cats, the whole of the bunch, and the deer besides, which
had not been touched by the cats.

We skinned the cats, and Jim afterwards made a cap out of one of them,
and he wore it for several years.

Jonnie West and I were out hunting one day for deer when we discovered
two cougars in the grass, and we could not make out what it meant.
Finally one made a spring, and it seemed to us that he jumped at least
twenty feet, and he landed on a deer, and for a minute or two there was
a tussle. While this was going on Jonnie and I were getting closer to
them, and when they had the deer killed we were within gunshot of them,
and they didn't eat much before we killed them both. We skinned the
deer, and also the cougars, and took them to camp, and when we went to
Bent's Fort the next spring we got twenty dollars apiece for them, for
they were extra large cougars, or mountain lions as they are sometimes
called, and their hides are very valuable.

It seems wonderful to me when I think of the amount of game I saw
through the country at that time, of all descriptions, some of which in
their wild state are now extinct, especially the buffalo and the bison,
and all other game that was