138 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



feasts of pleasure, known only to the hunter, after these 

 seasons of adventure are past, and when age, with his hoary- 

 locks, unfits him for toilsome enterprise, in which it was 

 once his delight to engage, and his glory to excel. Old 

 age has not yet laid his paralyzing hand on me; still my 

 occupations are clianged: instead of the noble forests through 

 which I have roamed in quest of the Bear, the Wolf, and 

 the Panther, it is my lot to trudge the streets of this goodly 

 city, and take my share of the trials and perplexities atten- 

 dant on a city life; but the reminiscences of those early 

 days come over my mind, with an influence at once salutary 

 and soothing, when it is disturbed by any of those nameless 

 perplexities to which human nature is heir. Under the 

 influence of such feelings I determined, (after an absence of 

 several years,) to revisit my native town, in the slate of 

 New York, and about 150 miles north of Philadelphia — 

 that I engaged an old companion to accompany me once more, 

 on a hunting excursion, the details of which I furnish with 

 pleasure, if you think them sufficiently interesting for your 

 "Cabinet." On arriving at the above mentioned place, two 

 faithful and old companions claimed my particular regard, 

 viz: a Rifle, which had served me in the hour of need, and 

 had slain its thousands before I wielded it, and Lion, the 

 faithful Dog that had never shrunk from danger, nor turned 

 tail on the most savage monsters of the forest. Theseexcited 

 an impatience which could scarcely be restrained, and I 

 eagerly embraced the firstopportunity toroam the mountain 

 wilds. My friend, who was ever willing, readily consented 

 to an excursion the next day; but being somewhat indis- 

 posed, he did not enter into it with the same spirit which 

 marked his enteri)rises in former years — he liad been re- 

 peatedly informed by his men, who were cutting timber 

 on a stream called " Shad Pound Brook," that a Panther 

 had crossed the •'Logroad"several timesduring the winter, 

 and as the snow had fallen to a considerable depth, the sup- 

 position was, that it could not be far from that place. From 

 the circumstance of their having siiort legs, tliey are much 

 averse to travelling far; especially as at this time the depth 

 of snow was eighteen inches, and it must have been hunger 

 alone which urged this animal to travel in search of food. 

 As this county had been hunted over so frequently by my 

 friend and myself, we could judge pretty accurately of the 

 neighbourhood in which the Panther was to be found, and 

 as the mountain next beyond that, on whicii the men were 

 cutting timber, was the place in which we would mostlikely 

 find it, we resolved to take the sleigh as far as these men, 

 and then seek the object of our pursuit on foot — we accord- 

 ingly departed; but on arriving at the spot where we intended 

 leaving our sleigli, found our prospects even more gloomy 

 than we had anticipated. We sank to our knees in the snow at 

 every step; butas I was anxious to kill something, weperse- 

 vered with steady pace through many dilncullies. We had not 



proceededfar,however, before fresh tracks of deerappcared; 

 they inclined down the mountain and across the hollow to 

 the next mountain. It was agreed that I should follow 

 until I could get a shot, which the freshness of the tracks 

 warranted a belief would soon occur; and that my compa- 

 nion, who was somewhat indisposed, would continue his 

 path alongside the mountain, and under the branches of the 

 hemlock trees, where, the snow being of less depth, made 

 it more agreeable to travel. I followed the tracks for some 

 time, and expected at every step to see them spring up before 

 me. Presently I heard my companion give two ?«/^oq/w — this 

 was a signal preconcerted always, one call to ascertain the 

 direction of each other — two in succession was the signal to 

 approach the caller. But such was the intensity of my pur- 

 suit after the deer, with the expectation of seeing them 

 every moment, that I should certainly have disregarded the 

 signal, had I not been apprehensive that my friend was 

 overcome with fatigue: this determined me to obey it, 

 when, to my agreeable surprise, I found on reaching 

 him, that he had discovered the Panther's track, and nearly 

 fresh. We set off in eager pursuit, reckless of the snow, 

 and,after proceeding about one mile, saw where it had gone 

 under a ledge of rocks and again came out and made several 

 jumps. Here we thought we had aroused it; conse- 

 quently the dog was let oft" in chase; he did not run more 

 than three hundred yards, before he came upon two deer, 

 after which he led off, and could only be recalled by dis- 

 charging our rifles. We were here disappointed, the cause 

 of the Panther's actions appeared to have been a disposition 

 for play, springing and jumping about voluntarily. After 

 Lion's return, and reloading our rifles, we proceeded. To 

 all appearance, the animal must have madelhis track butthe 

 night previous, as most of their wanderings are durino- this 

 season. About one mile further we came to another ledo-e 

 of rocks, two hundred yards in length, and twelve orfifteen 

 feet high, perpendicular, and like a wall — here the Panther 

 had exercised its muscular powers, by springing to the top 

 of these rocks and then to the ground again — thus, when 

 undisturbed, this animal is dissimilar to others, always 

 marking his travels by this kind of deviation, which seems 

 to proceed from mere sportiveness, and is confined to 

 this class; as they arc not constructed for running or 

 travcllingagreatdi.stance, but possess rather great muscular 

 strength, which they often call into exercise by this kind of 

 diversion; the lieight and distance which a Panther can 

 jump, is really astonishing, when their clumsy appearance 

 is taken into consideration. This ledge of rocks skirted the 

 side of the mountain to the distance of two hundred yards 

 or more; at its termination was a cave, in which we suij- 



posed our antagonist had sought a place of repose the 



mouth of this cave was an opening four feet high and two 

 broad, the entrance descended gradually to the distance of 



