vival of the fittest--a young male lion
escapes to the weaning time, even after that he is persecuted. Young
male lions have been killed and found to have had their flesh beaten
until it was a mass of bruises and undoubtedly it had been the work of
an old Tom. Moreover, old males and females have been killed, and found
to be in the same bruised condition. A feature, and a conclusive one,
is the fact that invariably the female is suckling her young at this
period, and sustains the bruises in desperately defending her litter.

It is astonishing how cunning, wise and faithful an old lioness is. She
seldom leaves her kittens. From the time they are six weeks old she
takes them out to train them for the battles of life, and the struggle
continues from birth to death. A lion hardly ever dies naturally. As
soon as night descends, the lioness stealthily stalks forth, and
because of her little ones, takes very short steps. The cubs follow,
stepping in their mother's tracks. When she crouches for game, each
little lion crouches also, and each one remains perfectly still until
she springs, or signals them to come. If she secures the prey, they all
gorge themselves. After the feast the mother takes her back trail,
stepping in the tracks she made coming down the mountain. And the cubs
are very careful to follow suit, and not to leave marks of their trail
in the soft snow. No doubt this habit is practiced to keep their deadly
enemies in ignorance of their existence. The old Toms and white hunters
are their only foes. Indians never kill a lion. This trick of the lions
has fooled many a hunter, concerning not only the direction, but
particularly the number.

The only successful way to hunt lions is with trained dogs. A good
hound can trail them for several hours after the tracks have been made,
and on a cloudy or wet day can hold the scent much longer. In snow the
hound can trail for three or four days after the track has been made.

When Jones was game warden of the Yellowstone National Park, he had
unexampled opportunities to hunt cougars and learn their habits. All
the cougars in that region of the Rockies made a rendezvous of the game
preserve. Jones soon procured a pack of hounds, but as they had been
trained to run deer, foxes and coyotes he had great trouble. They would
break on the trail of these animals, and also on elk and antelope just
when this was farthest from his wish. He soon realized that to train
the hounds was a so