THE COUGAR. 



127 



pressed takes to a tree, or possibly comes to 

 bay in thick cover. Its attention is then so 

 taken up with the hounds that it can usually 

 be approached and shot without much diffi- 

 culty ; though some cougars break bay when 

 the hunters come near, and again make off, 

 when they can only be stopped by many large 

 and fierce hounds. Hounds are often killed 

 in these fights ; and if hungry a cougar will 

 pounce on any dog for food ; yet, as I have else- 

 where related, I know of one instance in which 

 a small pack of big, savage hounds killed a 

 cougar unassisted. General Wade Hampton, 

 who with horse and hound has been the 

 mightiest hunter America has ever seen, in- 

 forms me that he has killed with his pack 

 some sixteen cougars, during the fifty years 

 he has hunted in South Carolina and Missis- 

 sippi. I believe they were all killed in the 

 latter State. General Hampton's hunting 

 has been chiefly for bear and deer, though 

 his pack also follows the lynx and the gray 

 fox ; and, of course, if good fortune throws 

 either a wolf or a cougar in his way it is 

 followed as the game of all others. All the 

 cougars he killed were either treed or brought 

 to bay in a canebrake by the hounds ; and 

 they often handled the pack very roughly in 

 the death struggle. He found them much 

 more dangerous antagonists than the black 

 bear when assailed with the hunting knife, a 

 weapon of which he was very fond. How- 

 ever, if his pack had held a few very large, 

 savage dogs, put in purely for fighting when 



