PANTHERS, AND OUR OTHER CATS. 407 
Indian file, when I, who was behind, suddenly observed a 
creature, which I supposed to be a panther, in the act 
of springing from the low limb of a bending tree on my 
companion—who was a few feet in advance of me. I shouted 
in warning to him, when he sprang forward, and I fired. 
The ball struck the creature “on the leap” just between 
the eyes, and it fell at my feet. The eyes were burst from 
the sockets, and its yells and dying struggles were terrific. 
On firing another load into it, these struggles ceased. 
After our surprise had subsided, I examined it coolly, and 
found it to be entirely distinct from the cougar, both in size, 
which I am convinced was considerably greater, (I took no 
measurement,) and color, which instead of tawny, was a light 
roan, or mingled red and dull white. Then the head was of 
greater size in proportion to the body, and the rudiments of 
a mane and tufted tail were sufficiently distinctive. I regret 
that I was not more careful at the time, for my measurement 
might have substantiated a new species. 
A hunter attached to Sir William Drummond Stewart’s 
Expeditions, was assailed by a Puma leaping down upon him 
from off the face of a bluff, as he rode beneath. He was 
walking his horse slowly, when his attention was aroused by 
the rolling down of a pebble or some fragment of rock. 
Looking up quickly, the terrible brute was crouching above 
him, with ears laid back close upon its head, and he saw 
the wavy stir of the tail in the grass, and brambles above. 
To whip out his holster was the act of an instant, and he 
fired into its face, as the yellow glare of those eyes was 
almost against his own in the descent of its leap. He was 
considerably torn by its claws in the death-struggle, but 
the heavy ball of his holster had crushed its skull to pieces. 
Mr. Miller afterwards made a sketch of the scene of 
this occurrence on the spot, and it is given at the head of 
this chapter. 
But what is more in point, we saw several skins of these 
