VIII. 



THE HUNTER CHENEY ENCOUNTERS WITH A PANTHER 



DEADLY STRUGGLE WITH A WOLF A BEAR AND MOOSE 



FIGHT SHOOTS HIMSELF. 



Backwoods, July 12. 



Dear H : 



You know one expects to hear of hunting achieve- 

 ments upon our western frontier, where the sounds of 

 civilization have not yet frightened away the wild 

 beasts that haunt the forest. But here in the 

 heart of the Empire State is a man whose fame 

 is known far and wide as the " mighty hunter," 

 and if desperate adventures and hair-breadth escapes 

 give one a claim to the sobriquet, it certainly be- 

 longs to him. Some ten or fifteen years ago, Cheney, 

 then a young man, becoming enamored of forest life 

 left Ticonderoga, and with his rifle on his shoulder, 

 plunged into this then unknown, untrodden wilder- 

 ness. Here he lived for year^ on what his gun 



