312 THE CAT FAMILY 



I had bought an all-around dog, I was anxious to try 

 him. We had not gone from camp more than twenty 

 minutes when his bark announced that he had put up 

 some birds. We hurried up to him, only to find that the 

 birds were very wild, and that the dog, with all his bark- 

 ing, was unable to hold them until we could get a shot. 



" We tramped on for ten minutes more and heard his 

 bark again, but it took a different and rather savage 

 key this time, being as much growl as bark. Not be- 

 ing used to the dog, we remarked about it and quick- 

 ened our gait. From the barking of the dog, we judged 

 that he was on the move, and Rockwood remarked that 

 whatever the quarry was, it was moving. We had 

 heard that there were bear around the lake, and 

 concluded that the dog had jumped one. I had been 

 looking for bear on occasional hunts for several years, 

 but on those occasions I had always had my .30-30 with 

 me. Rockwood had also been hungry for bear; but 

 neither of us was exactly loaded for bear on this occa- 

 sion. Rockwood had a 12-gauge shotgun and I had a 

 22-calibre repeater with 'short' cartridges. But it was 

 a chance not to be missed, and I said, 'Come on, I am 

 going to try him anyhow.' Rockwood needed no en- 

 couragement, and we followed the barking of the dog 

 as fast as legs could carry us, Rockwood in the mean- 

 time trying to replace his birdshot cartridges with 

 others loaded with buckshot. 



"After a short run I caught a glimpse of something 

 red running in front of the dog (about the color of a 

 summer deer), and concluded that it was a lion ; and 

 knew that if the dog could keep up his gait he would 

 soon have him treed. 



