BRINGING DOWN A PANTHER. 115 



its bark, while the others ran to and fro around him, 

 barking like veritable demons. 



I raised my eyes, to discover, if I could, the object of 

 their rage. After a few moments' survey, becoming ac- 

 customed to the obscurity, I descried, at about thirty 

 paces above my head, a male panther of the largest 

 species, who, lashing his flanks with his tail, rolled in 

 their orbits piercing glaring eyes, like balls of flaming 

 phosphorus. 



To take aim, and simultaneously discharge both barrels 

 of my rifle, was the affair of a second j but, despite the 

 accuracy Of my fire, the animal was not killed outright. 

 With his two fore-feet he clung to one of the branches, as 

 if he defied death. But a few minutes afterwards his 

 claws abandoned their grasp, and the panther fell at my 

 feet in the middle of the dogs, whom I with the greatest 

 difficulty prevented from rending his carcass into frag- 

 ments. 



Meantime, my friends had come up, and, thanks to 

 their ready help, I contrived to save my game, and hung 

 it to the branch of a tree, out of all reach. 



It was the first panther which I had killed, and I must 

 confess my joy was extreme, and evinced itself in numer- 

 ous exclamations. The animal was an enormous one, and 

 yet he was far from resembling the panthers exhibited in 

 museums of natural history, which are as large as a tiger 

 or a leopard. The panther of the United States seldom 

 exceeds the size of a large fox, or, at most, that of a small 

 wolf. The one which hung before my eyes had a reddish- 

 white skin, covered from the neck to the extremity of the 

 tail with oblong spots, of a dull brown colour, bordered 

 with black. The under part of the belly was white and 



