Mr. pierce on the Catskill Mountains. Q3 



tains adjacent to the Bristol turnpike and glass manufactory. 

 It is deep, containing Pickerel, Trout, Perch, and other fish. 



Several streams which have their source in the moun- 

 tains to the westward of this lake, and pass through roman- 

 tic ravines, are uncommonly well stored with trout. Five 

 hundred of these fish have been caught by an angler in a day. 



Residents of the mountains informed me they had obser- 

 ved a large cave in the region south of the Platterkill into 

 which a boy had been introduced twenty feet perpendicu- 

 larly by a rope before he reached the bottom. He explo- 

 red a considerable distance without finding a termination. 

 The fact is interesting from its indicating either a limestone 

 region, or a rock decomposing readily from its containing 

 much sulphuret of iron, alum or coal. Caves of considera- 

 ble extent are rarely found except in secondary or transi- 

 tion limestone, the excavations being made in the soft calca- 

 reous rock, by the friction of water. 



Panthers, wolves, bears, wild cats, and deer are occasion- 

 allv seen in the southern section of the Catskill mountains, 

 but are not so numerous as in the middle region. A Pan- 

 ther measuring in length about nine feet, was recently kil- 

 led in the southerii range ; this animal is rarely seen ; but 

 from its strength size and ferocity, it is regarded with terror 

 and considered the most formidable beast of the forest ; their 

 color is grey, the head small in proportion, the general form 

 indicating agility ; they have been known in ascending a 

 ledge or tree, to rise at a leap twenty feet from the ground. 



Of wolves, two varieties inhabit the Catskill mountains; one 

 called by hunters the deer wolf, from his habjit of pursuing 

 deer, for which bis light grey hound form adapts him. The 

 other of a more clumsy figure with, short legs and large bo- 

 dy, more frequently depredates upon flocks under the pro- 

 tection of man. Foxes and rabbits are numerous, and white 

 hares, martins and hedgehogs sometimes seen, squirrels sel- 

 dom. 



Rattlesnakes frequent the warm sides of the Catskill moun- 

 tains, but are rarely observed on the summits or northern 

 declivities and ten miles in the interior of the range are nev- 

 er seen. They are in general about 4 feet in iength — the 

 skin of one recently kiiled near Shues lake was exhibited 

 to me ; it measured between five and six feet. The color 

 of the male is daiker than that of the female, they live to the 

 age of twelve and fifteen years. 



