158 A WILD-CAT HTTNT IN CAROLINA. 



cover, three miles distant from the town of Beau- 

 fort, where we expected to put up a cat. The field 

 consisted of three veterans Judge P., Doctor E., 

 and myself, and two neophites, Splash and Dash. 

 Two drivers, one mounted, and one on foot, 

 managed the dogs and beat the thickets. Four 

 couple of staunch hounds skirted the cover, while 

 three pointers and a setter penetrated the thicket, 

 and gave variety to the sport, by springing occa- 

 sionally a woodcock, snipe or partridge, which we 

 shot if they came in OUT way. Our guns, 

 charged, the one barrel with buck or duck and 

 the other with bird shot, kept us prepared for 

 whatever game might present itself. 



The hounds had not long entered the thicket, in 

 which (from finding at its edge the remains of a 

 half-devoured rabbit) we concluded that the cat 

 still lurked, when they struck off on an animated 

 drag ; and soon, a burst from the pack assured us 

 that the cat was roused. In a minute, the thicket 

 is surrounded each hunter, as the cry approached 

 him, poising his gun and peering into the- tangled 

 copse to catch a glimpse of the fugitive. But he 

 keeps the cover, which is so thick as to defy the 

 keenest sight ; and circles it securely, leaving the 

 dogs to tear their way through the briers. " Ha ! 

 what is that ? a shot ! another !" It is Splash, who 



