The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-02-07
A Singular Discovery.

| w find in the Kansas correspondence of thu
St Louis Republican the following very sin
gular occurrence related as having actually oc
Cured during wolf hunt on the prairie:
few days since, while riding in the rear O.
our town, in a small ravne, through which 9
Streamlet takes its quiet way beneath its crys-
tai covering, and whose irrigation has produced
tall grasses and shrubs that make hiding
place for game, L came suddenly upon large
black wolf He was scratching at thin place
in the ice, and seemed almost famished fol-
water. When he saw me he started in full
run for the forest in the river bottom kept
upon his heels, and tried to ride upon him.
lie was almost exhausted, and just as | sup
posed he would give out, he slipped into the
hollow of a large cottonwood tree.
| stopped the hole through which he enter
ed and came back to town and got an axe, and
the dogs, and the assistance of Frank Mahan
and VIM. Palmer, and, together, we returned
to cut him out. The dogs were anxious, and
we were prepared with our guns to receive
him. ii. ,..4-,-zr +r ...a r
When we had made large hole, about four
feet from the ground, the dogs jumped at it
on the outside and the wolf on the inside, and
such barking, growing, swapping, and howling,
never heard before. 1t made the woods re-
sound for great distance, and brought several
of the neighbors to the spot. Things continued
so for while, and we consulted what had best
be done. Wecould not shoot the wolf through
this opening without too great risk of kill
ing the dogs, for he only appeared at the inside
when the dogs were at the outside We final
ly concluded to stop the hole that we had
made, and fell the tree by chopping narrow
cash all around it. p a....#
The tree came down little sooner than we
expected. Frank Mahan had the axe lifted
for another stroke as it went over with crash
The wolf, with bristIed back and glaring
eyes, and glittering teeth, leaped at his throat
with terrible ferocity. The descending axe
met it half way, cleaying it's skull and laying
it dead at his feet
We had no time to express our wonder and
congratulations at his narrow and singular es-
cape, before our attention was called to that
which filled us with amazement, if not dread
1t was human skeleton, of medium size, and
of female, hidden in the cavity of the tree
Its posture was erect and the bones were held
together by kind of clear integument that
seemed to cover, like transparent skin, the
entire frame. The jar of the felled tree sever
ed several of the joints, and we drew them all
out and placed them again in FORM The pro-
portions were perfect and the limbs straight
indicating contour, when in flesh, of perfect
symmetry. Who could it have been, that
thus perished, years ago. in this wild forest!
and how came her death in this strange place?
were queries that were Immediately suggested.
Could it have been some maiden, who like the
bride in ''The Mistletoe Bough," had conceal
ed herself from her lover in the heart of this
old tree and become fastened there and diad Q
Or, IN fleeing an enemy, had sought this refuge?
Or, in escaping wild beasts, had climbed up in
this close retreat, whence she could not ex-
tricate herself? Those were natural sugges-
tions, for the skeleton fitted close in the cavi-
ty ard seemed to have been fas sened there.
How many years ago this frame possessed vi
tality, and how many yearsi it had inhabited
this time-worn, storm wrecked tenement, and
how it came there, and to what race it once
belonged, will remain mystery until the uni
VnrSa1 rnraIotinp