THIJBTY TEAKS A HUSTEB. 21 



what I was doing, asked me laughingly if that was 

 the way I watched the Lick. I replied that I wanted 

 some trout for supper. While I was stringing my 

 fish I heard a stone rattle about a hundred yards 

 below me. I turned, and saw a panther looking at 

 nae. I sprang up the bank and informed my father 

 what I had seen. Telling me to keep quiet, and 

 make the dog lie down, he stationed himself behind 

 a root having a hole in it, through which he pointed 

 his gun, and waited the panther's approach. When 

 it had come within three rods of us, it paused, with 

 its fore feet upon the bank, and its mouth open, dis- 

 playing a formidable array of glistening teeth. My 

 father fired, and it fell back dead. The ball had 

 passed through its open mouth, and broken the ver- 

 tebrae of the neck. We cut it open and left it there. 

 It was larger than any panther I ever Saw before or 

 since, and I have seen some thirty : we supposed it 

 to weigh between two and three hundred pounds. 

 When we returned to the camp we found Morrison 

 there before us. We now brought our venison toge- 

 ther, and built a scaffold upon which we placed it to 

 dry. It may be well here to describe the manner of 

 preserving elk's meat in the summer. It is firs 4- cut 

 in thin slices, and salted down in the skin. We 

 always carried a bag of salt with us for that purpose. 

 Two large poles are laid across crotches about five 

 feet high, and a number of smaller ones are laid 

 across these. After the meat has lain a sufficient 

 length of time in the skin, it is spread upon this 

 scaffold, and a slow fire built under it. The fire is 



