PANTHERS, AND OUR OTHER CATS. 405 



one no hook to hang a doubt upon in this case, and left me 

 more inclined to believe the many anecdotes of the same 

 kind, which are as familiar to us of the southwest as house- 

 hold words. 



Nor are such relations to be thus summarily disposed of, 

 as old wives' tales ; the hearsay and hap-hazard gossip of the 

 borders, for they are sound, substantial realities just as 

 much historical truths of those times as the battle of the 

 Horse Shoe, of the River Raisin, or of the Blue Licks, or 

 any other collision that might be named between the white 

 race and a foe quite as savage as even I can suppose the 

 most ferocious of these animals to have been, and like them 

 rapidly disappearing before our coming. 



There can be no question that the port of the civilized 

 man, even without the adventitious aid of the fearful engines 

 he wields, is in itself sufficient, when he chooses to assert 

 his God-like supremacy upon a physical world, to overawe 

 and subdue the most untameable brutes ; utterly changing 

 their relations to himself, by the majesty of his presence 

 and his will ! 



The Editors of the Quadrupeds of America give, in a 

 short anecdote, an illustration to the point : 



During a botanical excursion to the Edista river, our 

 attention was attracted by the barking of a small terrier at 

 the foot of a tree. On looking up, we observed a wild cat, 

 about twenty feet from the ground, and at least three times 

 the size of the dog, of whom he did not appear to be much 

 afraid. He seemed to have a greater dread of man, however, 

 than of this diminutive specimen of the canine race, and 

 leaped from the tree when we drew near ! 



Yet with all the timidity this anecdote is intended to 

 illustrate, the wild cat, from its desperate fighting and 

 cunning, affords a very exciting sport to the hunter. When 

 overtaken by the dogs, several of them are frequently killed 

 by it, and Mr. Audubon gives some instances of its subtlety 



