90 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



most remarkable one, and himself as a hero of no small magni- 

 tude. 



The kittens were carefully housed and petted in every 

 possible manner, but, though playful when young, as soon as 

 they became old enough to display their natural temper 

 they were anything but pleasant companions. They would 

 bear no familiarity, and whenever they escaped, as they 

 sometimes did, they would destroy fo\vls in the most indiscri- 

 minate manner, and, apparently, without any other purpose 

 than to satisfy their bump of dcstructiveness, for they did not 

 attempt to eat them. They were attached to no person, not 

 even to him who fed them habitually, and as all the feeding 

 and kindness in the world could not arouse a spark of affection 

 in them, or overcome their propensity to destroy everything 

 they could seize, even to the house cat, they were shot before 

 they were eighteen months old. 



One of them escaped on a certain occasion, but its absence being 

 detected in a few moments after, the dogs were sent in pursuit. 

 They espied it heading for a copse some few hundred yards 

 away, and announced the matter by a vigorous yelping. When 

 it reached a deep but narrow stream that separated the woods 

 from the house, it plunged in boldly, clambered up the other 

 side, and sought refuge in a tree. It was soon caught however, 

 and dragged back to the kennel, a degraded, " voiding " captive. 

 This incident would prove that the animal will voluntarily take 

 to water, and it is, I believe, one of the few species of the 

 Fclida that will do it ; but my experience is that it will avoid 

 it as carefully as any member of its family, unless driven to it 

 by stern necessity. 



A proof that the animal, in its wild state, can sometimes be 

 playful with man, maybe deduced from an incident that occurred 

 in Washington Territory. A farmer on his way to Olympia, the 

 capital of the Territory, was passing one evening over the 

 road that leads through the dense forests which stretch 

 southward for miles from the town. These are almost of 

 plutonian darkness after the sun sets, owing to their density 

 and towering altitude., so that one cannot see ten paces ahead. 

 AVhile walking leisurely along, he was surprised to fed 



