e of finding the game there, I crept forward very quietly,
holding Marengo in the leash. But the hare was not in the brush; and,
after tramping all through it, I again noticed the track where she had
gone out on the opposite side. I was about starting forth to follow it,
when all at once an odd-looking creature made its appearance right
before me. It was that fellow there!" And Basil pointed to the lynx. "I
thought at first sight," continued he, "it was our Louisiana wild cat or
bay lynx, as Luce calls it, for it is very like our cat; but I saw it
was nearly twice as big, and more greyish in the fur. Well, when I first
sighted the creature, it was about an hundred yards off.

"It hadn't seen me, though, for it was not running away, but skulking
along slowly--nearly crosswise to the course of the hare's track--and
looking in a different direction to that in which I was. I was well
screened behind the bushes, and that, no doubt, prevented it from
noticing me. At first I thought of running forward, and setting Marengo
after it. Then I determined on staying where I was, and watching it a
while. Perhaps it may come to a stop, reflected I, and let me creep
within shot. I remained, therefore, crouching among the bushes, and kept
the dog at my feet.

"As I continued to watch the cat, I saw that, instead of following a
straight line, it was moving in a circle!

"The diameter of this circle was not over an hundred yards; and in a
very short while the animal had got once round the circumference, and
came back to where I had first seen it. It did not stop there, but
continued on, though not in its old tracks. It still walked in a circle,
but a much smaller one than before. Both, however, had a common centre;
and, as I noticed that the animal kept its eyes constantly turned
towards the centre, I felt satisfied that in that place would be found
the cause of its strange manoeuvring. I looked to the centre. At first I
could see nothing--at least nothing that might be supposed to attract
the cat. There was a very small bush of willows, but they were thin. I
could see distinctly through them, and there was no creature there,
either in the bush or around it. The snow lay white up to the roots of
the willows, and I thought that a mouse could hardly have found shelter
among them, without my seeing it from where I stood.

"Still I could not explain the odd actions of the lynx, upon any other
principle than that it was in the pursuit of ga