sled and a yoke of oxen. Let the hunters lie down in the bottom of the sled among the hay, and let the driver drive his team not directly towards the deer, but round them in concentric circles, gradually lessening in diameter, till he carries you within ten rods of them. The writer was one of a party of four, who by the sled dodge got six deer in one morning, and ought to have killed twice as many, from the number of fair shots we had. The Panther. This, the largest and most formidable of the North American cats, is seldom seen upon the plains, except when traveling from one grove to another. They prefer a mountainous and broken country. The Northern Lynx. A few years ago this animal was rather common in Northern Illinois, a specimen having been killed within the limits of the present city of Chicago about twelve years since. This lynx feeds upon birds, and other small animals, and seems, notwithstanding its formidable size, to be a timid animal, and easily killed. It is sometimes eaten. The Black Bear.-Although the country on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan abounds with these animals, they are seldom seen on the west side of the Lake, and then only as transient visitors; they preferring a heavily timbered country, which furnishes them with more food and shel ter than they can get on the prairies. We have always thought that there was something more human about the bear than the other prowlers of the woods; and so think the Indians, who call him "brother," and when they kill him for food, or from a desire to appropriate his thick overcoat, generally apologize to him for the liberty, and attribute it solely to their necessities. Like man, the black bear is omniverous, though he prefers fruit and vegetables; seldom meddling with the sheep or hogs if he can get berries or mast. He is not aggressive in his temper, but likes his share of the road, and does not allow himself to be crowded. Instead of roving about the country in the winter, mad with cold and hunger, like the ferocious and disreputable wolf, our bear snugly stows himself away in his den and sleeps till spring. He is an excellent boxer, and, in a ring fight, would puzzle the best shoulder-hitter in New York to touch him, while a wipe from his paw would take the conceit out of Hyer or Yankee Sullivan. There are many bear stories about, but the following, by an old Hoosier, is one of the best we remember: "When I came into this neck of woods, about twenty years back, there was a powerful chance of 'Bar' yer. Many is the good hide I've shucked off the varmints, and many a jar of ile I've toted down to Lar Fayett, for the pottecaries, and me and my old woman always all'owed that bar meat did stick to the ribs better than hog. I was goin' to tell you of her scrape with the old he bar. It was in the spring, airly, one day, when I was away in the timber with the boys, mauling rails, that the sarcumstance happened, which made me laugh powerful, I tell ye. The old woman was alone in the cabin, frying out some pork fat, say near sundown, when this old he, traveling through the timber, smelt the fat I reckon, for he clim the fence and came snuffing round the cabin. We had both the guns with us in the woods, or the old woman wouldn't have asked no favors; but as she had no shootin' iron, she fastened the door, and the bar seein' he couldn't get in at the door, he clim up the logs and got to the ruff, so as to come down the chimbley, bein' just naturally bound to have that pork fat. So, as he came backing down the chimbley, bar fashion, my old woman, she jumps to the bed and heaves an armful of straw on the fire. You may believe that and the fat blazed considerable, and so did the bar's posteriums, and the way that old he went up the chimbley wasn't slow. He just made a bee line for the timber, and never said another word about pork fat. And that's the way my woman, she tarrified the bar, and kinder skortched his britches." The Grizzly Bear. If the last mentioned bear is sometimes a joker, the grizzly bear is not, being the most powerful and ferocious beast on this continent, and, as is thought by those competent to judge, equally formidable with the tiger or the lion of the African deserts. This bear is peculiar to Amecica, and his range is about the base of the Rocky Mountains, where his favorite food, the buffalo, is to be found. The chase of this animal is attended with great danger, for, beside his enormous strength and ferocity, which generally prompt him to attack rather than avoid mankind, he is so cased in thick skin and muscles like cordage, that a shot, except through the heart or brain, seldom makes any impression. Then the skull is so thick and so formed, that a bullet, unless entering through the eye, is apt to be flattened or glanced off Lewis and Clark, who met with this bear in their exploring expedition to the Oregon, some thirty or forty years ago, and first described him, tell us of several instances where the grizzly bear fought furiously with two or three shots through the heart, and they found them by far more formidable than the Indians. And we know that the killing of one o. these animals is the greatest possible exploit for an Indian, and stamps him at once as a great brave. The mountain men and trappers, however, do not hesitate to attack the grizzly bear, single handed, and with rifle and knife generally "get his meat," which is esteemed as food, and can be found at the eating houses in California. Sometimes, however, the tables are turned, and the bear, "equal to either fortnne," turns out the eater, and not the eaten. The Badger. This, a plantigrade cousin of the bear family, is found on the Western plains. It much resembles in appearance the European badger, though there are said to be organic differences between them. It lives in holes in the ground, from which it seldom issues forth by day It fights desperately when assailed by man or dog, and, being protected by a skin of great thickness, is not so easily killed. Wisconsin has taken the badger for its emblem "totem," as the Indians call it, as Michigan has assumed the name of wolverine; and we think the former bas the advantage, the badger being a more honest and respectable animal than the wolverine, which is a sort of pirate of the woods, lying in wait for defenseless deer, which he pounces upon by stealth, and esteeming it to be his manifest destiny to eat up all the pigs and sheep that come in his way. We advise the Michigan people to drop the wolverine, and assume the bear. -a decent beast that minds his own business. The Wolf. Of this animal we have three species, the large Gray Wood Wolf, the Black Wolf, and the Prairie Wolf. The first is a pow erful and dangerous animal everywhere, though in this region he does not appear ever to have been so formidable to the human race as in the mountains of the Middle and Eastern States. This may arise from the abundance of his favorite food, venison, in the West, so that he is not often driven by hunger to attack mankind, which he always avoids doing if possible, being a cowardly brute, that dislikes a fair fight. Twenty years ago the gray wolf was abundant in the wooded parts of the State of Illinois, but being driven back by the approach of man, trapped and hunted, and, more than all, poisoned by strychnine, they are now confined to the heavy timber of the Illinois and Mississippi bot toms, and some of the large groves in the northern part of the State. Though cowardly, they fight desperately when cornered or wounded, and we are told by a hunter, that having caught a gray wolf in a trap, the beast, with the heavy trap hanging to one foot, actually whipped a pack of ten or twelve dogs, several of which were killed or wounded in the fray. We recollect several years ago, while traveling in the northern part of Wisconsin, in a very severe winter, when the wolves were unusually bold, witnessing an amusing scene. Quite a number of the young men of the vicinity were in a bar-room of the tavern, which was near a heavy tract of timber, when about midnight the wolves were heard howling near the house. Two of the youths, valiant with whisky, seized clubs and rushed to the attack. We all went to the door to see the fun, and by the bright light of the moon we could see the young heroes pursue the wolves to the edge of the timber, shouting and brandishing their sticks in a manner very valiant to behold. Suddenly, however, their charge became a halt, the halt a retreat, and, finally, the retreat a most ignominious flight. The wolves, five or six in number, (and they did loom up large in the moonlight,) pursued the fugitives a short distance towards the house, but were turned back by a shot fired at them from the door. It seems that the wolves had retreated, and drawn the young men into an ambush. The howl of the wolf is one of the most frightful sounds that a novice can hear in the woods. We were once camping out in Iowa in winter, some seventy miles west of the Mississippi, and at that time beyond the frontier. It was midnight, and all the party were asleep except two of us, who sat by the camp fire at the opening of the tent, smoking, and spinning long yarns, when "At once there rose so wild a yell, The whole air seemed to be filled with the vibrations of that infernal sound. Nothing could be seen within the circle of light made by our fire, but outside of it all the wolves in Iowa seemed to be seated, open |