86 THE DOG VERSUS RACOON. 



plied their axes lustily. But for their help I should have 

 been held by the foot as firmly as ever was Milo of 

 Crotona by the hand. Should I have experienced a 

 similar fate to that of the famous athlete ? I cannot say ; 

 but if I did not fear the racoons, I should have been 

 afraid of being devoured by the cayeutes, and bitten by 

 rattlesnakes in spite of the cold. 



But this ludicrous incident, instead of discouraging me, 

 had, on the contrary, reanimated my ardour. We re- 

 sumed our march, and, not without tripping at every 

 step, arrived on the brink of a bayou, into whose mud 

 and slime the racoon had penetrated to save himself from 

 the murderous teeth of the dogs. Thanks to the glare of 

 Dolly's torch, we soon " sighted " the animal crouching 

 in the midst of the mud, which reached up to his belly, 

 his hair bristling, and his tail so swollen that you might 

 almost have sworn it was the caudal appendage of a 

 very large wolf. His mouth was white with foam, his 

 eyes flashed flame and fire, and, without losing sight of 

 any of the dogs' movements, he held himself ready to 

 seize by the nose the first who ventured near him. The 

 dogs were afraid to close, and limited themselves to a 

 few feints of attack, with the result their instinct taught 

 them to expect, of fatiguing the beleaguered animal. 

 He soon manifested unequivocal symptoms of weariness. 

 Though he miauled more loudly and more vehemently 

 than ever, our dogs, without suffering themselves to be 

 intimidated by the frightful noise, which was repeated 

 by all the echoes of the forest, began to pen him in more 

 narrowly. One of them, bolder than the others, con- 

 trived to seize his tail ; but a sharp bite forced him 



