GLIMPSES OF WILD LIFE 175 



among the Nimrods. It was like the commo- 

 tion in the water along shore after a steamer 

 had passed. The bears were proba])ly safely 

 in the Catskills by the time the hunters got 

 dogs and guns ready and set forth. Country 

 people are as eager to accept any rumor of a 

 strange and dangerous creature in the woods as 

 they are to believe in a ghost story. They 

 want it to be true; it gives them sometliing to 

 think about and talk about. It is to tlieir 

 minds like strong drink to their palates. It 

 gives a new interest to the woods, as the ghost 

 story gives a new interest to the old house. 



A few years ago the belief became current in 

 our neighborhood that a dangerous wild animal 

 lurked in the woods about, now here, now 

 there. It had been seen in the dusk. Some 

 big dogs had encountered it in the night, and 

 one of them was nearly killed. Then a calf 

 and a sheep were reported killed and partly de- 

 voured. Women and children became afraid to 

 go through the woods, and men avoided them 

 after sundown. One day as I passed an Irish- 

 man's shanty that stood in an opening in the 

 woods, his wife came out with a pail, and 

 begged leave to accompany me as far as the 

 spring, which lay beside the road some distance 

 into the woods. She was afraid to go alone for 

 water on account of the "wild baste." Then, 

 to cap the climax of wild rumors, a horse was 

 killed. One of my neighbors, an intelligent 

 man and a good observer, went up to see the 

 horse. He reported that a great gash had been 



