504 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. VI, No. 6, 



m 



NOTES ON THE FORMER OCCURRENCE OF CERTAIN 

 MAMMALS IN NORTHERN OHIO. 



E. L. MOSELEY. 



Mr. Porter W. Wright has killed more big game than any- 

 other man of my acquaintance in this region. He owns a good 

 deal of land in Sandusky County near the west end of Sandusky 

 Bay, and has lived there since 1836, when he was two years old. 

 Along with notes made at his house last year I will give some 

 others obtained previously from old residents, some of whom 

 are no longer living. 



Mr. Wright often saw fifteen or twenty deer at a time and 

 they used to eat much of the corn in the fields. Men cut brush 

 to keep them out of the corn fields. They would eat within 

 twenty rods of a man and some were shot from the houses. 

 The}^ were plentiful enough to furnish all the meat desired, and 

 there was no market for them. The last was seen about 1859. 



In Erie County deer were often seen on the Oxford Prairie 

 feeding, and were plentiful as late as 1830. 



In Paulding County, W. H. Todd killed a deer in 1881. In 

 Wood Countv, on Scotch Ridge, Isaac Ward shot a deer in the 

 Fall of 1893.' 



Mr. Wright does not know of any bison in his time, but he 

 saw many of their horns, and bones near Castalia. 



Elk antlers have been reported found in Erie County. 



Bears were seen in various places in Sandusky County but 

 were scarce after 1845. Mr. Wright thinks there were none of 

 these animals after he began to hunt deer in 1849. On Put- 

 in-Bay when Daussa's Cave was being enlarged in order to make 

 it accessible to the public, part of the lower jaw bone of a bear 

 was found. W. H. Todd told me a bear was killed in Paulding 

 County in 1881. 



Mr. Wright remembers having seen panthers when he was a 

 boy. Mr. Gurley says that years ago there were many wild cats 

 in Erie County. A wild cat was killed in Wood Countv about 

 1878. 



Mr. Wright killed three otters about 1874. His wife thinks 

 the last one was caught there about 1879. Near Sugar Rock, 

 Catawba Island, one was seen swimming July 8, 1897, by Mr. 

 Coville; and I was told that about the same date otters were 

 caught occasionally near Toussaint, Ottawa County. 



Wolves killed several sheep near Clyde in 1835 or 1836. Mr. 

 Wright thinks the last one south of the Sandusky River was 

 seen about 1854, but that there were some in Ottawa County 

 later. In the museum at the Indiana State House is a mounted 

 specimen of a wolf killed in Jasper County, Indiana, in 1904. 



