Panthers in Maine? 
Norcross, Me., May 2. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: For years it lias been a question among 
hunters whether there exists or has existed in 
this State any such animal as the Indian devil, 
panther, or as he is known in the West, the 
mountain lion. 
We hear occasionally, through hunters and 
trappers who spend most of the year in the 
woods of Northern Maine, about tracks and 
signs of some animal of the cat species, that 
rannot be accounted for. For the last ninety or 
i hundred years these stories have been handed 
down, but no one has seen the animal, so as 
.0 give a full description of it, till last fall. 
Charles A. Daisey, a well known guide of 
Northern Maine, who runs Camp Phoenix, is 
lie first person in this part of the country that 
las met this animal face to face. Camp Phoenix 
s situated on the shore of Sourdnahunk Lake, 
ibout fifty miles from Norcross. From the 
kVest Branch of the Penobscot, where the trail 
leaves the river for his camp, through to 
Sourdnahunk lake is a rough and mountainous 
country, being in the heart of the Katahdin 
region, is considered the best hunting and fish¬ 
ing section in Maine. 
During the earlier part of the fall. Mr. Daisey 
was coming from his camp through to Norcross 
to meet a party. When down the trail to what 
is called the old Butterfield camps, he was 
passing by an 8ld yard where the lumbermen 
had yarded logs a few years before. The rasp¬ 
berry bushes were very thick and grew to a 
height of four or five feet. 
When he came to the edge of the yard he 
noticed two deer, as he supposed, walking 
through the bushes. lie stopped to watch them, 
for he had never seen deer walk along so 
quietly, and they were rather red for the time 
of the year, as deer begin to turn earlier in the 
season from the reddish color to a gray. 
While watching them, one of the animals 
sprang from the raspberry bushes into a big 
birch tree, lighting on a large branch some 
twelve or fifteen feet from the ground. Hardly 
had the first one reached the tree, before the 
second one sprang to the side of the tree about 
eight feet from the ground. This one looked 
back over his shoulder at Mr. Daisey, gave a 
cat-like spit and snarl, and then jumped off into 
the underbrush and disappeared. 
As soon as Mr. Daisey came to his senses 
after such a surprise, he pulled a small .32 
caliber revolver from his pocket and opened fire 
on the one in the tree, firing five shots as fast 
as he could pull, the last shot seemingly taking 
effect, for he said the animal hunched up his 
back, gave an unearthly yell, and sailed off 
through the branches to the ground, and out of 
sight. 
Filling the chambers of his revolver again, 
Daisey waited developments, for he said that it 
would be no use for him to try to run from an 
animal that could jump twenty-five feet. After 
waiting a few minutes they did not return, so 
Mr. Daisey resumed his journey. 
The animals when first seen by Mr. Daisey 
were on an old log, their backs just coming to 
view over the bushes. 
When Mr. Daisey arrived at Norcross, he told 
some of his friends what he had seen, but cau¬ 
tioned them not to tell about it. Finally the 
story leaked out and Daisey’s fellow guides have 
had all kinds of fun with him; some telling him 
they were bobcats, others that they were rac¬ 
coons or house cats left there by the lumber¬ 
men; but Daisey still claimed he had told the 
truth and said that before long some one else 
would see them. 
From Mr. Daisey's description the animals 
were of a reddish color, having a body four or 
five feet long and a tail about three feet long, and 
to his judgment would weigh 100 or 125 pounds. 
Nothing has been heard from them till re¬ 
cently. Capt. Robert Sawyer and Frank Haskell 
were hunting fur-bearing animals in the same 
vicinity last winter. They had a line of traps 
all around the Katahdin region, making their 
home camp a short distance from where Mr. 
Daisey saw these animals earlier in the fall. 
Capt. Sawyer was down recently to send away 
their catch of fur, and he told another story 
about this same animal. While they were at 
home camp Haskell took his rifle early one 
morning to go look at a line of traps a few 
miles from camp. It was just coming daylight 
when he got a mile or so from camp. Going 
along the trail, not paying particular attention 
to anything, he saw something jump over a brush 
pile. Going to where he caught a glimpse of 
the object, he saw that it was not a deer that 
had jumped but something that could jump much 
further than a deer. There was about eight 
inches of snow, so he could follow the track 
without trouble. 
The animal jumped four or five times and 
then walked. Haskell followed to Sourdnahunk 
stream; when the animal came to the stream he 
jumped across the open water, a distance / 
about thirty feet. The stream is very rapid and 
does not freeze over in winter. 
THE HUNTING LEOPARD IN ITALY. 
