THE PENNSYLVANIA LION OR PANTHER. 47 



creatures which Dr. J. T. Rothrock, of West Chester, 

 heard during his visit to this valley in 1893. His 

 description of the panther's cry, which we give in chap- 

 ter XI, is to natural history what Abraham Lincoln's 

 Gettysburg speech is to oratory; it surely is the pearl 

 without price. Although the good doctor is now in his 

 78th year, his mastery of diction is unimpaired. One 

 can feel the clear, cold night, with the effulgent moon 

 above all, and see the ragged outline of the Seven 

 Mountains silhouetted against the cloudless heavens ; 

 one can feel the oppressive stillness uninterrupted by 

 the stirring of a single twig until the panther's song 

 begins. And that song, that terrible song, so filled with 

 anguish, a banshee-like song, lamenting the passing of 

 the wilderness, of the brutes supremacy, the loss of 

 cover, of young, of hope, of life itself threatened. It 

 was both a requiem and a swan-song! Several per- 

 sons claim to have seen panthers in their old haunts 

 on Rock Run, Centre County, during the past five 

 years. A seven foot panther was reported killed dur- 

 ing "deer season," 1915, near Paddy Mountain, Union 

 County, but the report was later denied. Many per- 

 sons claim to have heard and seen a panther on the 

 Coudersport Pike, near Haneyville, Clinton County, 

 in 1913, 1914 and 1915. Residents of Treaster Valley 

 report having seen panther tracks near the Panther 

 Rocks, in that valley, in 1913 and 1914. Andy Wilson, 

 guide and former game warden, now of Clinton Coun- 

 ty, saw a panther which approached his camp fire in 

 the Seven Mountains in 1885. Hon. Frank B. Black, 



