performed several times in northern
Wyoming, although never in the immediate neighborhood of my ranch. Mr.
Archibald Roger's cowhands have in this manner caught several bears, on
or near his ranch on the Gray Bull, which flows into the Bighorn; and
those of Mr. G. B. Grinnell have also occasionally done so. Any set
of moderately good ropers and riders, who are accustomed to back one
another up and act together, can accomplish the feat if they have smooth
ground and plenty of room. It is, however, indeed a feat of skill and
daring for a single man; and yet I have known of more than one instance
in which it has been accomplished by some reckless knight of the rope
and the saddle. One such occurred in 1887 on the Flathead Reservation,
the hero being a half-breed; and another in 1890 at the mouth of
the Bighorn, where a cowboy roped, bound, and killed a large bear
single-handed.

My friend General "Red" Jackson, of Bellemeade, in the pleasant
mid-county of Tennessee, once did a feat which casts into the shade
even the feats of the men of the lariat. General Jackson, who afterwards
became one of the ablest and most renowned of the Confederate cavalry
leaders, was at the time a young officer in the Mounted Rifle Regiment,
now known as the 3rd United States Cavalry. It was some years before
the Civil War, and the regiment was on duty in the Southwest, then the
debatable land of Comanche and Apache. While on a scout after hostile
Indians, the troops in their march roused a large grisly which sped off
across the plain in front of them. Strict orders had been issued against
firing at game, because of the nearness of the Indians. Young Jackson
was a man of great strength, a keen swordsman, who always kept the
finest edge on his blade, and he was on a swift and mettled Kentucky
horse, which luckily had but one eye. Riding at full speed he soon
overtook the quarry. As the horse hoofs sounded nearer, the grim bear
ceased its flight, and whirling round stood at bay, raising itself on
its hind-legs and threatening its pursuer with bared fangs and spread
claws. Carefully riding his horse so that its blind side should be
towards the monster, the cavalryman swept by at a run, handling his
steed with such daring skill that he just cleared the blow of the
dreaded fore-paw, while with one mighty sabre stroke he cleft the bear's
skull, slaying the grinning beast as it stood upright.

CHAPTER V.--THE COUGAR.

No animal of the chase is