A hunter's life. 279 



to the track, I found it was that of the largest description 

 of panther. He had been j?one two or three days, but as 

 the weather was bad, and such as I knew would prevent 

 him from travelling farther than he could find a shelter, 1 

 thought I would follow him, discover where he lodged, 

 and in good weather I would watch his hiding-place, until 

 he came out to hunt ; then follow, catch him out of the 

 swamp, and kill him. 



I took his tracks, and was proceeding along rapidly, but 

 as the dog all the time wanted to run before me, and I 

 was afraid he would chase off the deer, I called him back 

 two or three times ; yet he was so anxious, that he would 

 still get far ahead. At last, breaking from me, away he 

 went. I got angry, and determined to give him a good 

 whipping when he came back. As he began to bark, I 

 supposed he had run an old buck too close, which, as they 

 had not yet lost their horns, had turned to fight ; and in 

 that case the dog might get killed. I ran to see how 

 things stood, when I found that the panther had killed a 

 very large buck, and was lying by him eating him, when 

 the dog winded him, put him to the best of his speed, and 

 was barking at him. Hurrying after them, I soon came 

 up, and fbund the panther standing on a limb of a pine- 

 tree ; it then misting rain, and freezing as it fell. When 

 I came up close, he looked at me so viciously, that I saw 

 he had a mind to fight me ; for he took no more notice of 

 the dog, laid his ears back, bowed himself, and kept his 

 tail wagging. As I understood his gestures too well to 

 be mistaken, I left room enough between us to keep him 

 from grappling with me — I suppose twenty steps — and 

 then took my stand. 



As my own gun had got out of order, I had borrowed 

 my son's rifle, which had a percussion lock. He carried 

 his caps in tht box, in which there was a little pin, with 

 one cap on it, to be handy in time of need. Having 



