386 
RURAL HOURS. 
of the largest size, is the kind used for brooms. The wJiite hirch, 
a small tree, is of less value than any other ; it is quite com- 
mon in our neighboi'hood ; we have understood, indeed, that all 
the birches are found in this county, except the little dwarf birch, 
an Alpine shrub, only a foot or so in height. 
Monday, 20th. — The potato crop is quite a good one this year, 
in our neighborhood, though a portion of it will be lost. But the 
disease has never been as fatal here as in some other places, and 
the farms of the county have always yielded more than enough 
for the population. Some ten years since potatoes sold here for 
twelve and a half cents a bushel ; since then they have risen at 
the worst season to seventy-five cents. They have been consid- 
ered high at fifty cents for the last year or two, and are now sell- 
ing at thirty-one cents a bushel. 
Tuesday, 2lst. — Again we hear of the panther story. The 
creature is said to have been actually seen by two respectable 
persons, in the Beaver Meadows ; a woman who was out gather- 
ing blackberries saw a large wild animal behind a fallen tree ; she 
was startled, and stopped ; the animal, which she believed to be 
a catamount, got upon the log, and hissed at her like a cat, when 
she ran away. A man also, who was out with his gun in the woods, 
a few days later, near the same spot, saw a large wild creature 
in the distance ; he fired, and the animal leaped over a great pile 
of brush and disappeared. It would be passing strange, indeed, 
if a panther were actually roving about our woods. ! 
Wednesday, 22d. — Very pleasant day. There is still a sprink- 
ling of snow in some woods, for the weather has been cool and 
dry, but the country generally is quite brown again. The western 
hills are entirely free fi'om snow, while those of the eastern range 
