d said, "but he
certainly looks like one. A female, I suppose, as it has got no
mane."

Of course the lads did not know, nor indeed did anyone else, at
that time, that the lion is not a native of America. The animal
before them was what is now called the South American lion, or
puma.

The creature walked round and round the fire, snuffing; and then,
with an angry roar, raised itself on its hind legs and scratched at
the trunk of the tree. Several times it repeated this performance;
and then, with another roar, walked away into the darkness.

"Thank goodness it can't climb!" Ned said. "I expect, with our
spears and swords, we could have beaten it back if it had tried;
still, it is just as well not to have had to do it. Besides, now we
can both go to sleep. Let us get well up the tree, so that if
anything that can climb should come, it will fall to at the deer to
begin with. That will be certain to wake us."

They soon made themselves as comfortable as they could in crutches
of the tree, tied themselves with their sashes to a bough to
prevent a fall, and were soon asleep.

The next day they rested in the wood, made fresh bowstrings from
the twisted gut of the deer, cut the skins up into long strips,
thereby obtaining a hundred feet of strong cord, which Ned thought
might be useful for snares. Here, too, they shot several birds,
which they roasted, and from whose feathers, tied on with a
thread-like fiber, they further improved their arrows. They
collected a good many pieces of fiber for further use; for, as Tom
said, when they got on to rock again they would be sure to find
some splinters of stone, which they could fasten to the arrows for
points; and would be then able to do good execution, even at a
distance.

They cut a number of strips of flesh off the deer, and hung them in
the smoke of the fire; by which means they calculated that they
could keep for some days, and could be eaten without being cooked;
which might be an advantage, as they feared that the odor of
cooking might attract the attention of wandering Indians.

The following morning they again started, keeping their backs, as
before, to the sun.

"Look at these creatures," Tom said suddenly, as a herd of animals
dashed by at a short distance. "They do not look like deer."

"No, they look more like sheep or goats, but they have much longer
legs. I wonder what they can be!"

During the day's journey they came across no water, and by the end
of