PUMA. 
4°3 
the road behind them. They paid no attention to it, as large mongrel dogs of this 
colour abound everywhere in the vicinity of the Indian camps, but played leisurely 
along, as is the custom of children the world over. The youngest boy, a chubby 
little chap of six summers, who was behind his brothers, suddenly came rolling 
along in front of his brothers, and a moment later the great cat sprang over the 
heads of the two astonished boys, seized the little fellow in its mouth, and with a 
spring vanished from sight in the bushes. Mr. Perry proceeds to relate how the 
eldest brother, with nothing but an empty bottle, proceeded into the wood and 
heroically rescued the child, by beating the puma about the head until the bottle 
was smashed to atoms, and then attempting to gouge out the creature’s eyes with 
the broken edges of the neck. The second instance occurred to a Swedish sailor 
named Joseph Jorgenson, in British Columbia. “ The man had just commenced to 
clear a spot in the forest for the purpose of building a house, and was wielding his 
spade vigorously when suddenly his arm was seized as in a vice. He wheeled 
instantly, and found that his arm was in the jaws of a couguar. He was a young and 
powerful man, ... so, without any preliminaries, he dealt his assailant such a kick 
in the stomach as to break its hold on his arm, and to lay it prostrate at his feet. 
The couguar instantly resented this rude treatment. Crouching it sprang at its 
foe’s throat, but he warded its head from his throat with his left arm, while with 
his right he dealt it a blow in the ribs that again prostrated it at his side. Quick 
as a flash it returned to the attack and seized him by the left hand, driving its 
fangs through the flesh and fearfully lacerating it. It was a fight for life, and 
Joe, with his brawny fists and heavy boots, beat and kicked the animal with such 
force that it released its grip on his hand and retired a short distance. Then it 
crouched and sprang at him again, landing on his breast and knocking him heavily 
against a tree; but again he cuffed and kicked it, until it again retreated and 
crouched for another spring. Fortunately Joe looking down saw the spade he had 
been using lying at his feet. Stooping quickly he grasped it just in time to ward 
off the couguar’s spring by giving it a thrust with the spade. The brute fell at 
his feet, but instantly rose and seized him by the thigh. Maddened with pain, Joe 
made a gladiatorial thrust at the couguar’s head. The sharp blade of the spade 
Avent crashing through its skull, and it fell dead at his feet.” 
To these instances of unprovoked attacks it may be added that the North 
American puma when attacked by man does not appear ever to exhibit that 
passive non-resistance which is its most remarkable trait in South America. 
At the time when pumas were abundant in the Adirondack Mountains, they 
were hunted in the snow during the depth of winter, when the hunter, in his snow- 
shoes, made side circuits until he hit off a trail. Generally such a track led to the 
carcase of a deer recently killed and partially eaten. And here it may be remarked 
that in regard to their prey the Adirondack pumas differ from those of Argentina, 
in that, at least in winter, they will return again and again to a “kill,” 
until the carcase is nearly or completely devoured. This may, however, be due to 
the circumstance that while in the hot plains of the Argentine the flesh of a slain 
animal would soon become tainted, it would remain fresh for a long period among 
the snows of the Adirondacks. 
When such a “ kill” is found the hunter looses his dogs, who soon succeed 
