WILD-CAT HUNTING. Lay. 
ing, professedly for a fox-chase, and it turns out “ cat,” 
and often both cat and fox are killed, after a short but 
hard morning’s work. 
The chase is varied, and is frequently full of amus- 
ing incident, for the cat, as might be expected, will take 
to the trees, to avoid pursuit, and this habit of the ani- 
mal allows the sportsman to meet it on quite familiar 
terms. If the tree be a tall one, the excitable creature 
manages to have its face obscured by the distance ; but 
if it takes to a dead, limbless trunk, where the height 
will permit its head to be fairly seen, as it looks down 
upon the pack that, with such open mouths, 
“Fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth,” 
you will see a rare exhibition of rage and fury; eyes 
that seem like living balls of fire, poisonous claws, which 
clutch the insensible wood with deep indentations; the 
foam trembles on its jaws; the hair stands up like por- 
cupine quills; the ears press down to the head, forming 
as perfect a picture of vicious, ungovernable destructive- 
ness as can be imagined. A charge of mustard-seed 
shot, or a poke with a stick when at bay, will cause it to 
desert its airy abode; and it no sooner touches the 
ground, than it breaks off at a killing pace, the pack 
like mad fiends on its trail. 
Besides “treeing,” the cat will take advantage of 
some hole in the ground, and disappear, when it meets 
