192 THE PUMA AND CAT FAMILY. 



killed on the Trinity Eiver, in Texas, hanging at a shop- 

 door in G-alveston, which was said to measure nine feet 

 six inches ; and allowing several inches for increase of 

 length, produced by stretching the skin to dry, beyond 

 its livinof measurement, the animal alive 'must have 

 measured nearly nine feet. 



It is very rare in the South that the largest and 

 most ferocious animals attack man. The warmth of 

 the weather and the abundance of food prevent them 

 suffering the extreme hunger which Northern animals 

 have to endure ; but I know of one case in which two 

 panthers did not exercise their usual discretion. 



Journeying from Caney Creek, Matagonda County, 

 to the town of Columbia, on the Brazos River, in riding 

 through the forest I shot a turkey, and the nipple of 

 my single rifle blew off at the shoulder. Knowing a 

 planter who lived on the San Bernard Prairie, and 

 whose house was near the road on which I had to 

 travel, I went there, hoping that he could put my use- 

 less rifle into shooting order, by drilling out the screw 

 of the broken nipple and putting a new one in. Neither 

 the planter nor his negro blacksmith, however, had 

 tools sufficiently fine to do this, and I had to carry my 

 useless gun to Columbia to be repaired. My host, 

 planter-like, refused to allow me to proceed till I 

 had had some dinner, and my horse had eaten a feed 

 of corn. During my chat with the planter, he jokingly 

 asked me how I should have managed had I been 



