506 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



bottom, and had just turned to go back up to where my 

 dead doe lay, when I heard a pack of Fox-hounds open out 

 in full cry on some high, brushy, and rocky points at the 

 extreme upper end of the bottom through which I had just 

 been hunting. 



Aloud "whoop-ee" told me that a chase of some kind 

 was on hand. The hounds seemed to be coming down 

 through the north side of the little prairie. I concluded 

 they had jumped a Deer; and in hopes of getting in a shot, 

 I slipped on up the south side of the bottom to a narrow 

 point of timber which jutted out into it, and there took a 

 stand to await developments. I soon saw some five or six 

 horsemen scatter out and take favorable positions for 

 shooting; two of them on my side of the bottom, the rest 

 on the river side. 



The hounds were discoursing some lively music, and 

 running rapidly, keeping well put in the high grass. I soon 

 found that it was not a Deer they were chasing, for- had it 

 been, I could have seen it bounding through and over the 

 grass. I was satisfied on this point. The hounds, after run- 

 ning the entire length of the bottom, were thrown off the 

 trail for perhaps ten minutes. They then tacked about and 

 started back up through nearly the center of the strip, 

 making the woods fairly ring with their musical notes. 



I walked up to the nearest horseman, whom I found to 

 be "Barf;" Holderman. He said that he, his brother Billy, 

 George Pulliam, and the Stephens boys were out after 

 Cats, and that the hounds were now making it hot for 

 one of the critters. This being a new game to me, I 

 determined to see it, and be in at the death if possible. 

 After a run of perhaps three-quarters of an hour, during 

 which the quarry doubled some two or three times, they 

 finally overhauled and brought it to bay. on the ground in 

 the high grass, about one hundred yards from the timber, 

 and some two hundred yards above our stand. We struck 

 out at our best gait for the scene of .combat, and there, in 

 the center of a small area, where the grass had been 

 knocked down by the hounds in the scuffle, lay, on its 



