Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1886-12-21
AN ARKANSAS PANTHER HUNTER


THE panther hunt is one of the
sports INDUCED in by the hunters who
live in the region of the dense swamps
of Southwestern Arkansas, said Tai
colt Risle, resident of Little Rock.
that ferocious animal being still
abundant in these almost inaccessible
jungles. Dogs of fine breed, and
especially trained for the dangerous
work, are used in packs or these
hunts, and the hunters follow the trail
mounted on the small but powerful
Indian ponies that are common on the
Southwestern borders. The timber
where the panther makes its home is
so thickly grown that a novice would
find it most difficult matter to make
his way along the trees on foot, but,
added to the density of the woods,
rank growth of creepers form a net
work from tree to tree, which
would seem to present an impossible
barrier to any living thing. Yet the
mounted panther hunters follow their
dogs through this thicket with appar-
ent ease. The hunter carries rifle,
stout rope or rawhide lasso, a small ak
and keen, long -bladed hunting knife.
With the latter grasped in his right
hand the horseman cuts his way with
sweeping slashes of the blade through
the low-hanging creepers, making an
opening SO quickly and surely that the
horse is rarely delayed in his course.
The dogs guide the hunter by their
loud baying as soon as a panther's
trail is scented, and so we'll are these
dogs trained that the crossing of a
bear or deer on the panther's track,
which is a frequent occurrence, never
leads the dog away from the game he
has been sent to follow.
"a panther soon trees after it finds
that the dogs are on its trail, and al
ways selects some large tree as its ref
uge, When the dogs reach the tree
their baying changes to a peculiar
bark, which announces to the hunter
that the game is brought to bay. Usu-
ally rifle ball dislodges the panther,
and it leaps or falls to the ground,
where the dogs at once attack it. I'm
less the animal is so badly wounded as
to render it helpless the fight between
it and the dogs rarely ends without
one or two of the latter being torn to
pieces, and this fierce fight to the death
is the exciting part of the hunt. Some.
times a panther hunt is attended
by circumstances that give it spice
of danger TO the sportsman that makes
the fight with the dogs at the foot of
the tree child's play in comparison.
''Bru Weston, an old time Arkan-
sas hunter, followed his dogs once on
Il panther's trail, and came up with
them where they had freed the game
in big oak tree.
The foliage was SO thick and the
shadows so deep in the timber that il
was some time before Weston dis
covered the panther. 1t lay between
two branches forty feet from the
ground, and chung so closely to the
| Dough that none but the practiced eye
of the hunter would have detected its
presence. Weston at once recognized
in the crouching figure panther's
cub, and was on the point Of sending
a rifle ball through its body when he
remembered an offer Of $50 that some
one in the settlement had made for a
live panther, and he resolved to cap
ture this one and secure the SEQ.
Taking his lasso from his pony's sad
die, and with his long knife in his belt
for use in an emergency, he climbed
the tree. He reached the lower
branches of the tree, and swinging
himself from bough to bough stood
just below the cub, which had raised
to its feet and stood with arched back
looking down at the hunter. Weston
removed his lasso from his shoulder,
and was about to toss 1t easily over the
young panther's head, when, as he
raised his eyes, he saw crouching in
the dead branches of a tree which
grew near the oak-so near that the
limbs were iuterlaced-an enormous
panther, the mother of the cub, ready
for q spring. She was hardly three
PAGES away. Without seconds de
lay Weston stepped from the branch
he was standing on to one which
brought him with the trunk of the
tree between him and the old panther.
He was just in time, for at that instant
the mother of the cub leaped on the
spot he had left and stood gazing
with fiery eyes on the hunter, who
with one arm claspcd around a branch
held in his right hand his bare knife,
as with every breath he drew lie ex-
pected to see the enraged animal
lspring down upon him. Standing
thus forty feet above the ground, with
only the treacherous footing of limb
a few inches thick, Weston knew that
he was lost unless by tact and skill he
were able gradually to make his way
back to the foot of the tree without ir-
irritating the fierce beast into precipi-
tating an attack upon him. Fortu-
nately the cub left its place higher up
and leaped down to the branch on
(which its mother stood glazing al
| Weston, who was almost near enough
to ner TO feel her hot breath. This
movement of the cubs distracted the
Iatteniion of the old panther, and
Weston sheathing his knife in his
belt, dropped to lower limb. The
panther noticed the movement, and
! sprang to the limb below, where SHE
stood, and prevented Weston from re-
treating further.
THE dogs all this time were crazy
d. with excitement at the foot of the tree