CHAPTER VII. 



THE WILD ANIMALS OF DERRYFIELD. 



It requires no severe exercise of the imagination to associate 

 the presence of arctic animals with an arctic climate. During 

 the rigor of the glacial epoch there is little room for doubt that 

 the arctic fox, reindeer and polar bear roamed over the plains and 

 that the seal and walrus were found upon the coast. It is equal- 

 ly certain that other forms, partly owing to the absence of food, 

 became extinct, their embedded bones alone remaining. Among 

 these extinct types were the mastodon and woolly elephant. At 

 the same time a great exodus of animals took place to the south, 

 fleeing before the threatening advance of the great ice-sheet, 

 again returning as the ice retreated. 



The Panther or Puma, Felis concolor. This ferocious and dan- 

 gerous animal once lurked in our forests, and was occasionally 

 killed by the early hunters and trappers. Almost alone of all 

 others, this beast had no fear of man, who at any time was liable 

 to be attacked. A panther was killed in Pittsfield some years 

 before the settlement of the town, in 1770. A party of hunters 

 came up from Durham, through what was then an unbroken 

 wilderness, after a pack of wolves which had been killing their 

 sheep. There had been a snow-fall, hardened with a firm crust, 

 over which new snow had fallen, so that travelling: was good 

 and the wolves easily tracked. These hardy men followed the 

 trail over the summit of Catamount. Here night came on, and 

 being tired with the long tramp the party, three in number, 

 went to sleep upon a ledge. When preparing breakfast the next 

 morning they discovered an enormous panther watching them 

 as he laid crouched upon the limb of an oak. The three men 

 fired simultaneously and the animal fell dead. This incident, 

 the details of which were given to us by Mr, John C. French, 



