358 MR. HARDY ON THE WILD CAT. 



as I have often seen prepared specimens of the animal, am 

 not very apprehensive of being under a mistake. This was 

 likewise the spot where, more than forty years ago, my father 

 used to see them, when they were still numerous. He recol- 

 lects of setting a dog after one, when it wheeled round and 

 put the dog to flight At that period they were in the habit 

 of coming out only towards evening, about the same time as 

 the foxes, with which they were sometimes associated. Rab- 

 bits probably constituted their chief subsistence, and these 

 still swarm so numerously as to be sufficient to preserve the 

 race, without its attracting particular notice. The banks 

 were perfectly quiet, when I visited them ; the sheep that 

 graze there having been some time previously withdrawn ; 

 which will account for the individual I noticed being abroad 

 during the day. The dark caverns, or "coves," of which 

 there are several in the range of cliffs from this to Fast Castle, 

 had the repute in former times of being tenanted by these 

 animals, and it deepened not a little the superstitious dread 

 these gloomy recesses inspired, that the entrance was guard- 

 ed by a creature so determined as this in the defence of its 

 offspring. I have even heard of one of the boldest of 

 the smugglers, who once lived in this vicinity, having been 

 so daunted by the expressions of rage and. formidable de- 

 meanour of a wild cat, attended by her young, which he met 

 near Windylaw Cove, that he deemed it the most prudent 

 course to turn round and retire. By their occasional depre- 

 dations in the hen-roost, they were known as far westward 

 as Dunglass, perhaps finding a retreat in the deep and wood- 

 ed glen. Fifty years ago, they were exceedingly numerous 

 in the woods above the Pease Bridge, which consisting of a 

 continuous cover of furze, intermixed with dwarf tangling 

 oaks, and traversed by but a single foot-path, presented an 

 impenetrable thicket for their effectual safeguard. Parties of 

 five or six might have been seen in the neighbourhood by 

 shepherds, whose duties led them to be early abroad ; and the 

 dogs despatched in quest of their straggling charge, had fre- 

 quent encounters with the quarrelsome inmates. Their sa- 

 vage yells, on occasion of their nocturnal assemblages in the 

 sequestered dells called North and Witchy Cleughs, are de- 



