Indians, the troops in their march roused a large grisly which sped off
across the plain in front of them. Strict orders had been issued against
firing at game, because of the nearness of the Indians. Young Jackson
was a man of great strength, a keen swordsman, who always kept the
finest edge on his blade, and he was on a swift and mettled Kentucky
horse, which luckily had but one eye. Riding at full speed he soon
overtook the quarry. As the horse hoofs sounded nearer, the grim bear
ceased its flight, and whirling round stood at bay, raising itself on
its hind-legs and threatening its pursuer with bared fangs and spread
claws. Carefully riding his horse so that its blind side should be
towards the monster, the cavalryman swept by at a run, handling his
steed with such daring skill that he just cleared the blow of the
dreaded fore-paw, while with one mighty sabre stroke he cleft the bear's
skull, slaying the grinning beast as it stood upright.



CHAPTER V.--THE COUGAR.

No animal of the chase is so difficult to kill by fair still-hunting as
the cougar--that beast of many names, known in the East as panther and
painter, in the West as mountain lion, in the Southwest as Mexican lion,
and in the southern continent as lion and puma.

Without hounds its pursuit is so uncertain that from the still-hunter's
standpoint it hardly deserves to rank as game at all--though, by the
way, it is itself a more skilful still-hunter than any human rival. It
prefers to move abroad by night or at dusk; and in the daytime usually
lies hid in some cave or tangled thicket where it is absolutely
impossible even to stumble on it by chance. It is a beast of stealth and