THE FLORIDA PANTHER. 



43 



eleven o'clock we usually returned to camp. Later than that, unless 

 the day was cloudy, no dog could follow a trail on sandy soil in 

 the hot, dry weather of Southern Florida. Sometimes the panther 

 would make a trail late in the morning, and then of course it could 

 be followed until 

 afternoon, but usu- 

 ally the trails were 

 made early at night, 

 and became too 

 " cold " to be fol- 

 low^ed after the sun 

 had been shining 

 on them for several 

 hours. It was easy 

 enough to follow 

 through the grass 

 w^here the ground 

 was still moist, but 

 upon coming out 

 upon high, sandy, 

 spruce ridges the 

 hounds would lose 

 the scent and 

 wander aimlessly 

 about trying to re- 

 cover it. 



In such cases we 

 could sometimes 

 assist them where 

 the tracks were dis- 

 cernible in the soft 



JUlI.N liA\l.-5. 



sand, but in many 



places the ground was just hard enough so that it was im- 

 possible to see signs of the trail except at long inter\als, and the 

 time occupied in attempting to follow it across one of those 



