348 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
followers, but in the year that he cut the trail to his caribou 
ground (it took him several days) he had excellent sport, and 
in Alaska he did so well with bear that next year a friend and 
myself found that all the skin-hunters in the country were on 
Sir Richard’s tracks. Of course we went elsewhere. So it is 
always. On the grounds which you find for yourself you may 
get excellent sport: on the grounds found for you by other 
people you have hardly a right to expect it. 
Before dealing then with the game list of North America in 
detail, let me say to the intending sportsman, Don’t be dis- 
couraged by every evil report : go and see for yourself : if pos- 
sible get a hint as to where game is likely to be and then look 
for a country yourself, not slavishly following your predecessors 
or entirely depending upon men whom perhaps you don’t know 
very well to present a stranger with an accurate chart of the best 
hunting grounds they are acquainted with, the way to which 
they have discovered by their own hard work. 
As in everything else in life, so it is in sport: if you want 
to get anything worth having, you have got to earn it yourself 
in one way or another. 
There is no royal road to success in the mountains, but there 
is the old road still for the self-reliant and adventurous who 
don’t stick to old trails and the railroad, and there is still plenty 
of game, for those who know how to seek it, in Colorado, British 
Columbia, Washington Territory, Ontario, Alaska, and even in 
parts of the province of Quebec. So much I dare personally 
guarantee. 
I. PANTHER (feds concolor) 
The American Panther (7é/is concolor) is a beast of many 
aliases but of few virtues. He is the ‘painter,’ ‘catamount,’ 
‘ mountain lion,’ ‘ cougar,’ ‘ Californian lion,’ or ‘ puma’ of early 
American legends ; but, in spite of his many high-sounding © 
titles, he is a mean, sneaking beast, hiding in dense timber by 
day, stealing or destroying more sheep in one night than he 
can eat in six months, affording no sport to anyone, and very — 
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