"I never saw one of the creatures."
"Have you ever seen the Eastern panther?" asked Garrison.
"No; though they used to be plentiful in the northern part of the State of New York."
"Well, the mountain lion is the same animal. Our climate and conditions have made some changes in his appearance and habits, but there is no doubt the two are identical."
"There's one kind of game that I wish we could meet," resumed Hazletine, "but they've got so scarce that I haven't seen one fur three years. That's the big-horn sheep."
"He seems to be disappearing from certain sections, like the buffalo from the country," remarked Garrison.
"There's plenty of 'em in the mountains of Arizona and old Mexico, and I've no doubt there's thousands of 'em in the Wind River and other parts of the Rockies, but it's mighty hard to find 'em. Then there's the black wolf."
"Is he fiercer than the gray one?"
"He's ten times worse. Whenever he meets the gray wolf he tears him to smithereens. You never seen a wolf of any kind that wasn't as hungry as you younkers was yesterday."
"He couldn't be any hungrier," said Fred, with a laugh.