HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



283 



THE PUMA. 



The Puma is found both in South and in North 

 America, probably with some varieties of color ; and 

 if we are to credit some of the anecdotes which are 

 related of it, we should be apt to consider it as a 

 more formidable animal in the colder latitudes than in 

 the warmer. This is certainly contrary to the natural 

 analogies of the genus ; and some of the anecdotes 

 are, besides, such as cannot easily be brought within 

 the range even of possibility. It has, for instance, 

 been gravely said, that the Puma has been known to 

 carry the body of a man that it had killed up into a 

 tree. Now, in the first place, it has not been very 

 satisfactorily ascertained that the Puma is a climber 

 of trees, even when it is not loaded ; in the second 

 place, if this were ascertained, it would be an argu 

 ment against the killing of man, for the tree-cats are 

 chiefly catchers of birds, squirrels, and monkeys ; 

 and, in the third place, notwithstanding all the mar 

 vels that have been told of lions and tigers, there is 

 no feat at all comparable with this told of either of 

 them. We have heard a similar story of a common 

 brown bear carrying the body of a horse along a 

 single tree which lay across a wide and deep ravine, 

 in the Scandinavian forests, but we never supposed 

 that the tale was meant to be believed, and the feel- 



