76 PERILS OF AN HUNTER. 



Again he bounded upwards to nearly the same 

 height; again the same terrible yell was heard, and 

 a second gush of blood from his death-wound, and 

 again did he tumble to the earth, while his eyes 

 gleamed with a deadly crimson hue. All seemed 

 to be over. But suddenly he sprung up once 

 more, and dashed furiously against the rock again 

 and again, though evidently growing weaker at 

 every effort ; till becoming entirely exhausted from 

 the loss of blood, he turned his rage against the 

 earth, which he tore up, with the most terrible 

 fury, and rent with his teeth every object within 

 reach. It was a hideous sight, and such was the 

 horrid fierceness that settled in his glazed eye, 

 that the awe-struck hunter would not descend 

 from his place of safety till he had discharged a 

 rifle-ball through his head, and saw the dark blood 

 ooze slowly from the orifice. 



Nor is it alone in open warfare that the Puma is 

 thus formidable. He will lurk in ambush like the 

 tiger, and dart upon his unsuspecting prey. The 

 same intrepid hunter again encountered one of the 

 tribe in circumstances of peculiar danger. He was 

 returning homeward in the evening from an excur- 

 sion in the woods, with the dog gambolling beside 

 him, while the sunbeams glanced through the 

 scarcely-moving leaves, and beautifully-coloured 

 birds flying in all directions seemed hastening to 

 choose their coverts for the night. Impressed with 

 the loveliness of the scene, the hunter stopped for a 

 moment to admire the setting sun, which shed a 

 brighter radiance on the forest, and lighted up, with 

 a vivid glow, its shadiest recesses, when suddenly 



