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 changed: 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 state 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. These excited 
an impatience which could scarcely be restrained, and I 
eagerly embraced the first opportunity to roam 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 enterprises in former years — he had been re- 
peatedly informed by his men, who were cutting timber 
on a stream called “Shad Pound Brook,” that a Panther 
had crossed the “Log road” several times during 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 short legs, they 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 which the men were 
cutting timber, was the place in which we would most likely 
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 sleigh, found our prospects even more gloomy 
than we had anticipated. We sank to our knees in the snow at 
every step; but, as I was anxious to kill something, we perse- 
vered with steady pace through many difficulties. We had not 
proceeded far, however, before fresh tracks of deer appeared ; 
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 whoops — 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 off 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. Af- 
ter Lion’s return, and reloading our rifles, we proceeded. To 
all appearance, the animal must have made this track but the 
night previous, as most of their wanderings are during this 
season. About one mile further we came to another ledge 
of rocks, two hundred yards in length, and twelve or fifteen 
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 are not constructed for running or 
travelling a great distance, but possess rather great muscular 
strength, which they often call into exercise by this kind of 
diversion: the height 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 sup- 
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 
