CHAPTER XL 



THE WILD CAT. 



JILD cats are most numerous in the southern 

 states of Louisiana and the two Carolinas. 

 The marshes and marshy brushwood which 

 extend along the banks of the Mississippi, 

 and the dense forests inundated by the overflow of the 

 rivers Pamlico and Santee, afford a covert and an asylum 

 to these dangerous animals, which commit such havoc 

 among game of every description. And what is worst is, 

 that, in spite of the persistent manner in which they are 

 hunted by the American farmers and sportsmen, they are 

 as numerous now as they ever were : it would seem as if 

 the destruction of the race were an impossibility. 



The Americans look upon the chase of the wild cat as 



