358 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



spread over the upper parts, produced by the tips of the k t, 

 which is black at the base. The head has a great many g> -ty 

 hairs upon it ; the whiskers are white, and rise in a blackish spa<*e. 



At an early period the cougar was distributed in considerable num- 

 bers over the whole of the warm and temperate regions of this conti- 

 nent, and is still found, though not abundantly, in the southern, 

 middle, and northwestern parts of the Union. It is a savage and 

 destructive animal, yet timid atA cautious. It climbs, or rather, 

 springs up large trees with surprising facility, and in that way 

 is enabled, by dropping suddenly upon deer and other quadru- 

 peds, to secure prey which it would be impossible for them fo 

 overtake. The cougar is seldom seen in day-time, but its peculiai 

 cry thrills the traveller with horror, during the night. As an in- 

 stance of the manner in which the cougar is pursued, and his 

 behavior when attacked, we quote the following from a late num- 

 ber of the Potsdam (N. Y.) Mercury :- 



11 PANTHER SHOT. The well known hunter, Mr. Charles Parme- 

 ter, of this town, who has been out in the woods the last two months 

 deer-hunting, killed a few days since in the town of Belmont, in 

 Franklin County, a large panther or catamount, measuring nine 

 feet in extreme length, and weighing 247 pounds. Mr. Parmeter 

 came upon the track while hunting, and the next day, with a dog 

 started with the determination to hunt him up. After a short dis- 

 tance he struck the trail and soon came up to where, with a single 

 bound, the panther had killed and split entirely open a huge buck, 

 apparently carried the same about twenty rods, and partly buried the 

 carcase. 



" Following on in pursuit, Mr. P. soon came to a mountain ridge 

 with huge shelving rocks, in a chasm under one of which he found 

 the panther's den. His dog, with hair erect and exhibiting ex- 

 treme fear, refused to enter, when Mr. P., tying a rope around the 

 dog's neck, entered himself, dragging his dog after him. The 

 panther fled by another entrance and took to a very tall spruce tree 

 near by. Mr. P. now climbed the ledge of rocks overhead and thus 

 found himself on a level with the tree top, and distant about fifty 

 feet from the same. The panther was almost hid in the dense 



