410 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
laughter to be able to shoot the cat, which we saw going off 
through the woods at full speed. On examination, I found 
the roots of the great tree had been hollowed far under 
and beyond the line of vision, and concluded that the shot 
into the hollow had missed aim, as I found the first animal 
dead, which I had seen lying from the first. We now called 
the dogs, which soon traced the fugitive to another hollow 
etree, from which we smoked it down—as is the practice in 
taking hares when they are “treed !”—and shot it dead as 
it sprang out. We found this to be the dam, while the first 
was a cub just grown. 
It is a somewhat curious commentary upon the nature of 
these animals, that the cub was found to have been so badly 
torn by the teeth of the dam as to render its skin useless. 
I suppose its falling into the den so suddenly and unusually, 
was the cause of this unnatural act on the part of the mother, 
who mistook it for some assailant. I have no doubt I should 
have been badly mutilated by this creature had the incident 
oceurred any where but in this neighborhood, where it had 
been thoroughly initiated into the terrors of gunpowder and 
the rifle. 
The genus Lynx is very celebrated in those classic and 
European legends, which, under the name of facts, have 
come down to us as Natural History. The metaphor in 
which a “ Lynx’s eye” is represented as being able to pierce 
through stone walls, is familiar to our childhood. From very 
ancient times, it has been known through curious and various 
associations. It is a sort of anomaly—neither canine or 
feline, strictly, but holding an intermediate position both 
in grade and notoriety. Though it has been much identified 
with the old world progress and story, yet it is even more 
intimately connected with the associations of the new world 
pioneer life. With us, north or south, every body has heard 
of the Lynz rufus, (or common wild cat,) even though some 
may have identified it with the Canada Lynx, and others, 
