Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-08-23
A TERRIBLE WALK.
A Pedestrian Followed Through
the Woods by a cougar.

n ~
the Woods by n cougar.
AS a test Of nerve, the recent expert
enee of a wayfarer, travelling a wood road
near Olympia, Washington. Territory,
was as remarkable as any on record.
The man was a speculator, looking out
wild land, and he trudged through the
forest, following the almost unused path
formed by an old road made by pioneers
in the wilderness. His mind was de-
voted to one subject-the critical exam
ination Of the kind OF trees upon the land
about him, and of the character of the
soil-and he failed TO notice for some
time a "pit-a-pat" upon the dead leaves
near him. He at FIRST scarcely looked
down, when he felt something rubbing
J against his legs and heard a slight pur-
ring sound, but when he did his heart
came up in his mouth and a cold sweat
started as suddenly as though he we're
suspended by a weak rope over Niagara.
Pressing itself softly against his legs,
twining about him as he walked, moving
its flexible body swiftly, but with never a
sound, turning up fierce eyes with some
thing almost like a terrible laugh in them,
was a huge cougarl No chicken was
this man. in the woods, but his account
of the manner in which his hat was raised
by his hair is not TO be considered as
apocryphsl at ell.
Sleek and supple and muscular, the
beast glided about, and at intervals it
would come closer again, and press its
body against the legs of the man, the
light touch making goose-iesh of every
inch in his form. 1t was a terrible ex-
perience, that interview with the cougar
in the forest primeval, and it was well
J for the man that his nerves were of the
kind to do honor to a frontier adventurer.
Steadily pursuing his course With steps
that would falter e little occasionally, he
kept on, and with him the beast contin-
ued its treaoherous gambols. At times
it would glide a few PAGES to the front,
and roll over and over in the road, and
wait for the mar to come up, and then it
would circle around him again, until the
impulse, almost too strong to be resisted,
would come upon him to spring upon
the brute, opposing fists to fangs, and
ending the intolerable suspense at any
risk. The movements of the terrible.
animal we're but as the playing Of a cat
with a mouse, and the man knew it.
The moment came at length, when the
strain could be borne no longer. and the
man kicked desperately at the beast as
it passed by him. In an instant it
bounded in front and crouched for a
spring, growing hoarsely and showing
its teeth. The man stopped and shouted
hopelessly for aid, while the cougar did
not spring at once, but appeared waiting
to crafty its humor a little longer.
The shout, fortunately, was not in
vain. There were hunters and dogs in
the immediate vicinity, as rare fortune
would have it,and the hounds dashed
suddenly from the covert as the cougar,
seeing them, leaped for a tree. A few
moments later the beast fell a victim to
bullets, and the man with whom it had
taken a stroll was telling his story and
trying to restore the normal condition of
his nerves by internal applications from
a small flask. 1t was one Of the episodes
which turn mems heads grsy-one which
would, doubtless, have brought death to
a man with less nerve than the hero of
the affair. -Dawagiac Monitor.