The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-10-10
A Night With Panther-An AdirOn.
dack Adventure.

A Night With q Panther-An Adiron.
dack Adventure.
So MUCH has been said about Smiths
adventure with the moose in June, near
Jocks Lake, and SO little of which APP
proximates the truth, that the writer,
who was one of the party, deems it best
to give the details in us few words as
possible. - 80. -.------.----.--
The party consisted of seven men, all
experienced in wood life and members
of the Norway Foresters," as follows:
Charles Hall, M. D., Hiram Austin,
Walter Servis, Zenas Smith and Willis
Kelley, of Norway, and Jay Delevan
and George H. Worden, of Prospect.
They organized at the house of Ed
Wilkinson, at Wilmurt, June 5, and
proceeded to the mouth of Indian River,
which makes into the west branch of
the West Canada creek, about fifteen
miles above Ed Wilkinson's on the east
side. Here we went into camp and
stayed until after dinner, when Smiths
adventure began.
Zenas Smith is rather below medium
height, with sandy complexion, clear
gray eyes, and, withal fine-looking
frank. easy appearing young man Of
twenty-five years. He and myself were
to take our rods and baskets and go to
the Four Mile Saltwater on the
West Branch, and if we found the fish
ing good, were to camp there and fish
the next day, distance of about five
miles from where we were. We left
camp about twelve M, and kept along
the creek trail for over a mile, when
we came to the marked birch for the
cutoff saving about a miles tramp
from the bend of the creek. Taking,
as we supposed, the right direction, we
Travelled for three hours, and not reach
ing our destination concluded we had
been bearing too much west, SO made a
sharp turn to the right, expecting to
strike the stream in half an hour at
most.
While we were clambering along in
this manner we were suddenly startled
by the appearance directly in front of
us, and not more than twenty rods
distant, of large moose, probably
eighteen hands high, or more, and
making directly for us. In the same
breath Smith caught me by the Shout
der and pointed to a tree near the
moose, where 1 beheld the glittering
eyes of a panther. We were without
arms or ammunition of any kind, the
only offensive or defensive weapons we
possessed being our pocket-knives. l
confess TO being more than frightened
at the time, but seeing the GOODNESS of
Smith determined not to let him see
my knees rattle. By this time the
moose was upon us; at glance we
knew that he came for protection, but
the huge panther still doomed upon us,
but had stopped in his headlong course.
"Smith," said I, show is this?''
81 believe we are all right" said
Smith. "The moose has come to us
for protection, consequently he is not
belligerent; the panther is undoubted-
ly cowed by our numbers, or dare not
tackle man. Let us build fire and
l will stay here while you 60 back to
camp and bring the rifle, and have one
of the other boys come back with you.
To this I demurred for a long time,
but finally concluded to go, leaving all
my traps with Smith, to make the more
rapid progress. This part of the story
can be told very shortly. l got lost,
wandered around till after dark, built
a fire, slept some, got up next day and
travelled till dark again, built a fire,
and started next morning and tramped
until about ten a. M, when came to
a stream, and, following it down, came
RI TooL1o Lo o,,%lo< chonfv onI from,
there went back to the Indian River
shanty, where the first man to greet
me was Smith, whom supposed had
been converted into panther's meat be.
fore this time. I was nearly starved,
but asked, "Smith, how was it?''
"After you left" said Smith, 81 got
all the wood together could and kept
up the fire, the moose standing back .
little, but keeping me between itselt
and the panther, which kept his posi-
ton in the tree. We kept this up al
night, the moose one side of me, tho
panther glaring with his eyeballs o1
fire upon the other, and you may mag
inc 1 acted my part as middle-mar
without getting very sleepy. Abou
sunrise Thursday morning the panther
gave terrific growl, sprang from tn.
tree and rapidly disappeared in the for
est. While [ was watching the panther
had not thought anything about tn
moose, and finally, when l turned NJ,
head, he was gone. l immediatel,
came to camp and found you gone
Some went to look for you, some wen
back with me, but we found no furthe
trace of either the moose or panther.
Letter in Utica IN. W Republican