134 SrORTINQ ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



were it not for the brier -bush the hunter would, in all 

 probability, have had to succumb, and be made into cat's 

 meat inside of twenty-four hours. 



I went after the slain animals the next day and brought 

 them to the house, with the aid of a boy, by tying them 

 on a drag made of the bough of a tree. On looking at 

 them, I found that the one I had killed was a four-year- 

 old male ; but the assailant which had done so much dam- 

 age to the person of the pioneer was a full-grown female 

 that boasted exceedingly large and dense claws, and long, 

 sharp fangs. Her face, throat, and abdomen were freely 

 sprinkled with knife-thrusts, and her handsome hide was 

 covered with blood from nose to flank. After being skin- 

 ned, the remains were thrown to the pigs, and they went 

 to feasting on the carcasses of animals which had often 

 made a feast off one of their company. When I left the 

 cabin its owner was on the high-road to recovery; but 

 when I saw him a year later he presented a disagreeable 

 sight, his face being as scarred as that of a Border Ruffian. 



The cougar is, as must be apparent, no mean foe in a 

 close struggle; so persons who do not care to spoil their 

 handsome features would do well not to go too near it 

 before its spirit has been expelled by the power of a 

 heavy bullet. It may, for all that, be hunted for years 

 before a man is attacked by it; but such good fortune is 

 due more to accident than any amiability on the part of 

 the quarry. 



There are several other members of the feline race to 

 be found in the West and South-west, but they are not so 

 large, the jaguar excepted, as the celebrated "painter" of 

 the pioneers. Those indigenous to the South-west, such as 

 Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and adjacent regions, are the 

 jaguar, or Mexican tiger ; the ocelot, or tiger-cat (F. para- 

 dalis) ; the eyra and yaguarundi ; and a variety of the bay 

 lynx, known scientifically as the F. macalutus. The Cana- 

 dian and the bay lynx are denizens of the more northern 

 regions ; yet they are found far to the south on the Pacific 

 Coast, much farther than on the Atlantic. 



