10 THE PENNSYLVANIA LION OR PANTHER. 



minx, muskrat, etc." Tliis shows that the sagacious 

 Quaker was awake to the commercial possibiHties of 

 the panther and other animals. On a number of occa- 

 sions he expresses himself in favor of the protection 

 of fur-bearing animals, except when their coats were 

 in prime condition. Certain of the Mingo Indians 

 hated the panther, classing it with the wolf and wild 

 cat, as one of the few animals which were at perpetual 

 war with their God of the chase, Kanistagia. By the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century the panther was 

 driven Ijack as far as the western limits of the presenr 

 Chester County. By 1750 it was rarely found East of 

 the Blue Mountains. Here it made its stand for more 

 than three-quarters of a century. By 1840 it was 

 driven further West, its limits being approxiiuately a 

 line drawn across the State in a Northeasterly direc- 

 tion, l:)eginning at the Eastern border of Fulton Coun- 

 ty, through Perry County, thence along the North 

 Branch to Wilkes-Barre, and from thence across to 

 Honesdale. By 18T0 the range was closed in to the 

 following counties: Clearfield, Centre, Mifflin, Clin- 

 ton, Potter, Lycoming and Susquehanna. Wy 1880 

 Clearfield, Centre and Mifflin contained the only na- 

 tive panthers, though wanderers from West Virginia 

 continued traveling through some of the Western and 

 Northern counties. In 1895 the range was limited to 

 two valleys only, viz: Havice and Treaster, in Mifflin 

 County, when the last native race of ])anthers disa]v 

 peared. Dr. j. T. Rothrock, former Forestry Commis- 

 sioner of Pennsylvania, heard the weird cry in Treas- 



