Cats Big and Small - Page 5
The Cats story continues
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This peculiar state, Livingstone urges, is " probably produced in all animals killed by the Carnivora, and,
if so, is a merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessening the pain of death."
There is comfort in that thought as we consider the daily lives of this splendid but pitiless order of
flesh-eaters, animals, which would perish within a week if other animals were not available as food.
Lion, tiger, leopard, we have named, but a special type of leopard must be added-the ounce, or snow leopard,
which haunts the towering Himalayas. In summer it ranges up to 18,000 feet, lithe and formidable at a height
where a man is so exhausted that he thinks twice before undergoing the exertion of turning over in bed. There
this redoubtable great cat lives, never coming lower than 6000 feet.
The American jaguar is a big leopard, with huge, powerful limbs, decorated with rosettes instead of spots like
its Old World cousin; an accomplished swimmer and climber, a deadly foe to cattle and horses, and as ready to
kill an unarmed man as to look at him. The jaguar slays an ox, and drags it lightly into hiding.
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