CAMPING OUT. 337 



although the greater number barked vehemently. We felt 

 assured that the cougar was treed, and that he would rest for 

 some time to recover from his fatigue. As we came up to the 

 dogs, we discovered the ferocious animal lying across a large 

 branch, close to the trunk of a cotton-wood tree. His broad 

 breast lay towards us ; his eyes were at one time bent on us and 

 again on the dogs beneath and around him ; one of his fore legs 

 hung loosely by his side, and he lay crouched, with his ears 

 lowered close to his head, as if he thought he might remain un- 

 discovered. Three balls were fired at him at a given signal, on 

 which he sprang a few feet from the branch, and tumbled head- 

 long to the ground, attacked on all sides by the enraged curs. 

 The infuriated cougar fought with desperate valour ; but the 

 squatter advancing in front of the party, and, almost in the 

 midst of the dogs, shot him immediately behind and beneath 

 the left shoulder. The cougar writhed for a moment in agony, 

 and in another lay dead. The sun was now sinking in the west. 

 Two of the hunters separated from the rest to procure venison, 

 whilst the squatter's sons were ordered to make the best of their 

 way home, to be ready to feed the hogs in the morning. The 

 rest of the party agreed to camp on the spot. The cougar was 

 despoiled of the skin, and the carcass leit to the hungry dogs. 

 Whilst engaged in preparing our camp, we heard the report of 

 a gun, and soon after one of our hunters returned with a small 

 deer. A fire was lighted, and each hunter displayed his ' pone ' 

 of bread, along with a flask of whisky. The deer was skinned 

 in a trice, and slices placed on sticks before the fire. These 

 materials afforded us an excellent meal ; and as the night grew 

 darker, stories and songs went round, until my companions, 

 fatigued, laid themselves down, close under the smoke of the fire, 

 and soon fell asleep. I walked for some minutes round the 

 camp to contemplate the beauties of that nature from which I 

 have certainly derived my greatest pleasure. I thought of the 

 occurrences of the day ; and glancing my eye around, remarked 

 the singular effects produced by the phosphorescent qualities of 

 the large decayed trunks, which "lay in all directions around me. 

 How easy, I thought, would it be for the confused and agitated 

 mind of a person bewildered in a swamp like this to imagine in 

 each of these luminous masses some wondrous and fearful being, 



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