VIII. DIMINISHING NUMBERS. 



WITH the hand of all raised against them, it is 

 small wonder that by 1860 the panther had 

 become a rarity in the Pennsylvania wilds. 

 Three or four were the most killed in any one year 

 from that date on, until the final extermination. After 

 1860, they bred in but two localities in the Common- 

 wealth — in the Divide Region of Clearfield County, in 

 :\Iiffiin County. In Clearfield County they had the 

 widest range, and increased most satisfactorily. 

 There was an almost impenetrable evergreen forest at 

 the head of Medix Run, which did not first feel the 

 woodman's axe until 1904, and which was a panther's 

 paradise. A few panthers bred there until about 1802. 

 The cries of panthers and the howling of wolves could 

 be heard there for a few years after that. Sam Odin, 

 of Clifford, Susquehanna County, killed the last pan- 

 ther in the northern section in February, 18T4. It is 

 described as having ben a superb male, red colored and 

 weighing 153 pounds. Its measurements are not given. 

 A female which was with it escaped, and is probably 

 the same one which was killed by Thomas Anson, a 

 coal-burner on the slope of the Pinnacle, in Northern 

 Berks County, in August of that year, according to 

 O. D. Shock, now of the Public Service Commission 

 at Harrisburg. "Forest and Stream" (V^ol. Ill, Page 

 67) gives the weight of this animal as 146 pounds^ 



40 



