With its head lower than its shoulders, and its long tail twitching, it
slouched down the path, treading as softly as a kitten. I waited until
it had passed and then fired into the short ribs, the bullet ranging
forward. Throwing its tail up in the air, and giving a bound, the
cougar galloped off over a slight ridge. But it did not go far; within
a hundred yards I found it stretched on its side, its jaws still working
convulsively.

The true way to hunt the cougar is to follow it with dogs. If the chase
is conducted in this fashion, it is very exciting, and resembles on a
larger scale the ordinary method of hunting the wildcat or small lynx,
as practised by the sport-loving planters of the southern States. With
a very little training, hounds readily and eagerly pursue the cougar,
showing in this kind of chase none of the fear and disgust they are
so prone to exhibit when put on the trail of the certainly no more
dangerous wolf. The cougar, when the hounds are on its track, at first
runs, but when hard-pressed takes to a tree, or possibly comes to bay in
thick cover. Its attention is then so taken up with the hounds that it
can usually be approached and shot without much difficulty; though some
cougars break bay when the hunters come near, and again make off, when
they can only be stopped by many large and fierce hounds. Hounds are
often killed in these fights; and if hungry a cougar will pounce on any
dog for food; yet, as I have elsewhere related, I know of one instance
in which a small pack of big, savage hounds killed a cougar unassisted.
General Wade Hampton, who with horse and hound has been the mightiest
hunter America has ever seen, informs me that he has killed with his
pack some sixteen cougars, during the fifty years he has hunted in South
Carolina and Mississippi. I believe they were all killed in the latter
State. General Hampton's hunting has been chiefly for bear and deer,
though his pack also follows the lynx and the gray fox; and, of course,