IN THE LOUISIANA CANEBRAKES 381 



nervously, he looked about and saw that five wolves were 

 coming toward him. One was a bitch, the other four 

 were males. They seemed to pay little heed to him, and 

 he shot one of the males, which crawled off. The next 

 minute the bitch ran straight toward him and was almost 

 at his stirrup when he killed her. The other three wolves, 

 instead of running away, jumped to and fro growling, 

 with their hair bristling, and he killed two of them; 

 whereupon the survivor at last made off. He brought 

 the scalps of the three dead wolves home with him. 



Near our first camp was the carcass of a deer, a 

 yearling buck, which had been killed by a cougar. When 

 first found, the wounds on the carcass showed that the 

 deer had been killed by a bite in the neck at the back 

 of the head; but there were scratches on the rump as if 

 the panther had landed on its back. One of the negro 

 hunters, Brutus Jackson, evidently a trustworthy man, 

 told me that he had twice seen cougars, each time under 

 unexpected conditions. Once he saw a bobcat race up a 

 tree, and riding toward it saw a panther reared up 

 against the trunk. The panther looked around at him 

 quite calmly, and then retired in leisurely fashion. Jack- 

 son went off to get some hounds, and when he returned 

 two hours afterward the bobcat was still up the tree, 

 evidently so badly scared that he did not wish to come 

 down. The hounds were unable to follow the cougar. 

 On another occasion he heard a tremendous scuffle and 

 immediately afterward saw a big doe racing along with 

 a small cougar literally riding it. The cougar was bit- 

 ing the neck, but low down near the shoulders; he was 



