THE PENNSYLVANIA LION OR PANTHER. 41 



length G feet 5^-2 inches. IMeasured in the study of 

 the writer of this article, where it now reposes, it is 

 exactly six feet six inches ! The old hunters were not 

 all "gross exaggerators," as some would have us 

 think. The story of the killing of this panther is of 

 more than passing interest. The coal-burners lived in 

 a shack on the east face of the Pinnacle, which is the 

 highest point in Berks County. Nearby is the cele- 

 brated "Amphitheatre," where the Blue Mountains 

 appear to form a horseshoe about the village of Eck- 

 ville and its surrounding fields. Travelers have com- 

 pared it to the "Cirque de Gavarnie" in the Pyrenees. 

 On several nights the coal-burners heard the animal 

 prowling about their premises, much to the terror of 

 their dogs. They supposed it to be a wild cat, as these 

 animals were very plentiful in the neighborhood. One 

 evening Jacob Pfleger, one of the burners, went to a 

 farmhouse to get a pan of butter. It was dusk when 

 he started for the shack, but he was able to observe 

 that he was being followed by a huge cat-like animal. 

 He kept his nerve, and was gratified to find that the 

 monster ceased following him when it reached a large 

 spring. There it began lapping- up the water like a cat. 

 He was unarmed, but at the shanty he found one of 

 his companions, Thomas Anson, who owned a rifle, 

 Anson is said to have killed a panther in Wayne Coun- 

 ty — the last known in that section — in 1867. The two 

 men returned to the spring, finding the panther not far 

 distant. Anson put several bullets into the brute's 

 body, ending its life. To this day the spring has been 



