374 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 4, 1909. 
1 
Panthers in the Adirondacks. 
Albany, N. Y., Aug. 28 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I was interested in reading the note 
from Game Warden Chase, of Vermont, printed 
in a recent issue of Forest and Stream. In my 
opinion the ocurrrence of a panther in Vermont 
at the present time, if true, is exceedingly re¬ 
markable. 
I have heard from time to time reports of 
panthers having been seen in the Adirondacks 
within the past ten years. Pell Jones, who for¬ 
merly ran the little hotel on Elk Lake, twenty- 
five miles west of Port Henry in Essex county, 
told me eight or ten years ago of seeing the 
tracks of a panther. He said this panther for 
a number of years had made the round of the 
mountains north of Elk Lake, from the Boreas 
Range over Colvin, Nippletop and Dicks, and 
that each winter he had seen the tracks about 
the same time. It was reported that one of the 
Cornell foresters, a man by the name of Mc- 
Clintock, I believe, had seen a panther on the 
shore of Ampersand Pond. A little before C. 
M. DuBois, who was superintendent of Litch¬ 
field preserve, told me he had seen the tracks 
of a panther in the snow in Litchfield Paik. 
In 1888 1 saw the carcass of a deer which had 
been killed about a week before on the Opales¬ 
cent River, west of Mount Marcy. This an old 
hunter in our party said had been killed by a 
catamount. The only part of the deer which 
had been eaten was the neck. Nearby was some 
dung which was full of deer hairs of a size 
‘arger than would have been dropped by any 
of the lesser carnivorous animals. 
We have a mounted specimen in this office 
killed by Verplanck Colvin on the cliffs north 
of Sumner Stream, which empties into the South 
Branch of the Moose River through the Indian 
clearing, on Feb. 15, 1877. 
John B. Burnham, 
Chief Game Protector. 
On Feb. 1, 1890, the county treasurer of Sara¬ 
toga county paid a bounty on a panther, be¬ 
lieved to have been killed in the Adirondacks 
in December, 1889, or January, 1890, but we 
have been assured by persons familiar with the 
circumstances that the animal was a wildcat. It 
is said that a recent Fulton county case is 
similar. 
Chief Protector Burnham also informs us that 
on April 22, 1889, a warrant for a panther bounty 
was honored in Essex county, and he is en¬ 
deavoring to ascertain who killed the animal, 
and where. He thinks it possible that in this as 
well as in the Saratoga county case, mentioned 
above, the animal was killed some time before 
the bounty was claimed. He adds that there is 
no further record in the comptroller’s office of 
any panther bounties between the years 1884 and 
1889. 
In a later communication the following in¬ 
teresting data is given us by Chief Burnham: 
“In conversation with some of our assistant 
chief protectors I developed the very interest¬ 
ing fact that Assistant Chief Protector R. B. 
Nichols, of Indian Lake, saw a panther in the 
Adirondacks as late as 1894. Mr. Nichols is one 
of our best type of Adirondack woodsmen. He 
has had experience in the lumber woods of 
Maine and of New Brunswick, as well as in the 
Adirondacks. In 1894 he was living seven miles 
up the Cedar River, above Indian Lake Corners. 
His sister had come on from Calais, Maine, to 
visit him. She had never seen a wild deer, and 
at her request Nichols started out with her 
across the back of his farm, where deer were 
quite often seen, with the object of showing 
her one. 
“They went up on a hill and surprised a 
panther, which, when they saw it, bounded out 
from a hollow and across a field toward the 
woods. They were only a short distance from 
the house, and Nichols called to some men who 
were engaged in sawing firewood for him, tell¬ 
ing them to bring a gun. By the time the men 
got up to them with the gun, the panther had 
entered the woods. Nichols tried to get the 
men to go into, the woods to drive the panther 
out, so that he could shoot it, but they declined. 
He then followed the panther himself, taking 
the rifle, upon which the panther again came in 
sight of the party in the open. It was seen by 
four or five men, as well as his sister. Nichols 
says there could be no doubt, as to the identity 
of the animal, as all who saw it noticed its 
long tail.” 
The editor of the Elizabethtown (N. Y.) Post, 
in the issue of Aug. 19, reprinted Mr. Chase’s 
comments on Vermont panthers which we printed 
on Aug. 14, and added: “Panthers are occas¬ 
ionally seen and heard in the Adirondacks,” but 
gave nothing more definite regarding them. 
A Blind Hunter. 
Indianapolis, Ind., Aug. n.- — Editor Forest 
and Stream: Some time ago I read in one of 
the sportsmen’s publications an entertaining 
article whose subject was a blind naturalist. 
This gentleman, although sightless, was de¬ 
scribed as going about the forest and streams 
in quest of specimens, etc. I send you a story 
clipped from the Brazil, Indiana, News—a 
veracious paper—that is “important, if true.” 
The article is as follows: 
“Blind men do remarkable things for persons 
entirely bereft of sight, but it is very doubtful 
if any of the feats of the blind will equal those 
of Gus Blessing, a blind man who has been an 
inmate of the county poorhouse for many years. 
“In spite of the fact that good eyesight is 
the one essential point for success in hunting, 
Blessing, who has been blind for many years, 
is an accomplished rabbit hunter and whenever 
he goes out hunting he is always certain to re¬ 
turn with a good bag for the trip. 
“W. H. McCullough, of this city, former 
superintendent of the poor farm, asserts that 
he has seen Blessing go out hunting and shoot 
three and four rabbits each trip. He does not 
trap or snare them, but kills them with bullets 
the same as any man with good eyesight 
would do. 
“The manner in which Blessing is enabled to 
bag his rabbits is interesting. The blind man 
has a well-trained dog which he has taught to 
tree all the rabbits he scares up. As soon as 
the rabbit takes refuge in a hollow tree Bless¬ 
ing finds his way to the spot by the barking of 
his dog. By means of a long forked stick, which 
he pokes into the hollow of the tree, he generally 
is able to locate the rabbit and he then uses his 
revolver with good effect, very seldom missing 
a rabbit. Blessing is able to take good aim at 
the rabbit by means of the long forked stick 
with which he has located the bunny, and it is 
very seldom that he has to fire more than one 
shot at a rabbit with his revolver until he has 
the game bagged. 
“A person would naturally scoff at the idea 
of a blind man shooting rabbits, but this is an 
actual fact and is vouched for by Mr. McCul¬ 
lough and other reliable citizens who have seen 
the old blind German bag his game.” 
Fred L. Purdy. 
Minnesota Game Prospects. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Aug. 28. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: The Minnesota Game and Fish 
Commission has been unusually active this year, 
and as a result of its investigations along the 
line of unlawful killing and taking of game out 
of season, it has gathered in a number of fines 
for the various offenses. The commission may 
be credited with having a number of good war¬ 
dens and it is only through their united efforts 
that they are able to cope with the situation. 
Needless to say, there are many cases of wrong 
doing that never come to light, generally through 
the inactivity of some of the wardens. As a 
rule a game warden is a man chosen because 
of his political prominence; not necessarily 
brave, but nevertheless supposed to do his duty. 
Carlos Avery, the executive agent of the com¬ 
mission, has returned from a trip of several days 
along the north shore of Lake Superior. He 
prosecuted one man at Grand Marias for ship- ' 
ping two live moose calves and had him fined 
$50. The calves were shipped to Grosston and 1 
were to be used for pets, but Mr. Avery says : 
that this cannot be done without a permit from 
the commission, and then only for scientific pur¬ 
poses. Mr. Avery has been told, however, that 
a number of live moose calves had been caught 
and shipped. 
Chicken hunting in both Minnesota and the 
Dakotas will be excellent this fall, according to 
reports coming in from the good hunting locali¬ 
ties of the States. The continued fine weather 
has been a great benefit to the chickens and the 
heavy rains that swept the Northwest some time 
ago found the young birds sufficiently grown to 
shift for themselves, thanks to the long dry spell 
which preceded them. In the vicinity of Crooks- 
ton, Minn., chickens are reported to be unusually 
abundant, and the game warden of that section 
sends in a similar report. Rosseau county is a 
favorite hunting ground and is said to offer an 
exceptionally good supply. Another good locality 
on which enthusiasts of the gun and dog have 
their eye is the Red River valley. Here the 
numerous abandoned farms have lured back hun¬ 
dreds of the shy chickens which once harbored 
there. Robert Page Lincoln. 
Fight with a Grizzly. 
A press dispatch from Nyack, Mont., says that 
James Doolittle was probably fatally wounded 
in rescuing his four-year-old daughter from a 
grizzly bear which had picked her up and had 
taken her some 200 yards away. Doolittle, hear¬ 
ing the child’s screams, gave chase on horse¬ 
back. The horse threw Doolittle, breaking his 
leg, and while helpless the grizzly turned and 
clawed him in a frightful manner. Aside from 
a few scratches the baby was uninjured. 
