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; utierly 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 EHdista 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, aud Mr. Audubon gives some instances of its subtlety 
