Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-06-10
A PANTHER HUNT.

INIT more frequently heard without being
seen, prowling about the lumber. camps
of the Susquehanna basin, and making its
presence apparent by raids on sheep and
even cattle among the sparsely settled
farm localities of Sullivan and adjacent
counties The advance of civilization has
not been so rapid among these dense pine
and hemlock wildernesses to have alone
caused the panther to abandon its hauntS
in those forests, for there are still mac
cessible jungles and wild, rocky retreats,
so well loved by this boldest and fiercest
of the great cat family, where it might
hide itself with almost, if not quite as much
security as it did in earlier years; but
civilization was aided by band of invet-
crate and cunning woodsmen who passed
their lives almost solely in carrying on an
offensive warfare against the panther, fol-
lowing it even TO its remOteSt and most
dangerous haunts, and engaging it there
fearlessly, and with tactics which they
had reduced to en- exact science. 1t was
the perpetual and unrelenting crusade of
this band of woodSmen that gradually re-
Guced the once numerous race of pantherS
in these woods to a condition of almost
absolute extinction, so that today, with
conditions favorable not only to its exist
ence, but to its increase, it is only at rare
intervals that the blood curdling cry of
this once monarch of the woods is heard
among its old haunt5, ana, rarer still,
that the dreaded posseSSor of the voice is
seen.
Capt. Brown was probably the most
famous OF the old time panther slayers.
He was an early settler at the Forks of
the Loyalsock creek, near what is now
the mountain village of louisville, Sulli-
van county, where he put up a cabin and
spent his time in hunting. He was the
panther scourge of wide region, and his
cabin was the first place that was visited
by the settlers Whereabouts when panther
had bereft some one of them of much
treasured sheep or COW, the visit being
to beg Capt. Brown to come and rid
their particular locality of the maraud-
ing beast. Among tie hundreds of tales
of daring and persistence manifested by
the great pioneer hunter one is recounted
with especial pride by descendants of his.
Among the first to seek the then I'M
known and unbroken region about the
forks of the Loyalsock was a settler
named Samuel Rogers. One morning
Rogers appeared In great trepidation at
Capt. Browns cabin, Just as that hunter
was rigging himself up for a days
tramp among the panther haunts.
Rogers said that a big panther had
broken into his sheepfold the night be-
fore and had carried off his most highly
priced ram. Rogers was a good panther
hunter himself, but he implored Brown
to accompany him in the chase. 1t was
one of Browns eccentricities that he
never hunted in company with anybody,
and he refused to so with Rogers. But
he said:
'Now, you go home, Rogers, and keep
cool won't 90 with you after that big
panther, but I'll go out myself and kill it
for YOU, and hope I'll have a chance to
get it's mate, too"
That was satisfactory to Rogers, and
Capt. Brown took his gun and went at
once to the woods on the flats at the forks
of the creek.
1t was late in the fall, and there was a
light snow on the ground. At the edge
Of the creek he struck the fresh track of
panther in the snow. From the IN
usual size of the footprints and drops Of
blood here and there along the TRAIL the
blood having come from some animal the
panther had secured and was carrying
away, Brown knew he had located the
big sheep stealer that had been in Settler
Rogers fold.
1t is the habit of panthers, like all of
the cat family, to bury what is left from
a feast, to be exhumed and eaten on
some future occasion. Brown knew that
by following the trail, if he did not over
take the panther itself, he would come to
the spot where it had buried the remains
of the sheep, and that by waiting near
that spot he would be sure to get a
shot not only at the one panther. but
more than likely at its mate, which
the former would fetch along to
to join in devouring the mutton. The
hunter followed the trail for a long dis
lance, and finally, on the edge of dense
laurel tbicket, found where the panther
had buried the sheep. Before preparing
himself to hide for the coming of his game
he instinctively glanced up among the
tops of the tall trees bordering the
swamp, and discovered the panther, his
huge length stretched along a limb near
the top of one of the trees. and his eyes
fixed on the hunter below. Brown raised
his rifle to fire, but the agile animal
sprang 10 another tree top, and so swift
were his movements that he escaped from
the sight of the hunter, who could only
follow the line of the great beasts retreat
by the swaying of the tree tops as the
panther leaped from one to another. The
course the panther took was toward
Doubling Run, and Brown made his way
as rapidly as he could through the inter
vening thicket and when he reached the
run he found that the panther had come
down from the trees and had taken a
course through the snow toward Lewis
lake, now the mountain summer resort of
Eagles Mere.
The tireless hunter followed the trail
through the dense forest, and it led him
straight TO the lake, distance of FIVE
miles, and around the southern shore for
two miles more, when Brown discovered
his game drinking from the lake. The
present site of the Eagles Mere steamboat
landing is pointed out as the spot where
the great panther stood and received Capt
Browns first bullet. The shot did not
disable the panther, and it sprang into
the laurels and again disappeared, leaving
the echoes of its yells reverberating about
the rocky shores of the lake. The course
of the panther lay toward the outlet of
the lake. and Capt. Brown followed
through the dense growth of laurels.
When he came to the outlet he discovered
the panther half buried in the soft mud at
the edge Of the water. 1t was treating
the wound il had received, as is the in
stinct of wild animals of its kind. The
hunter did not wait for the panther 10
enjoy the benefit of the healing mud, but
sent another bullet after his first. Again
the tenacious beast sprang into the thicket,
DuJ t1D. RrnxCrl'S nr,irE +I,a+ l. -
last shot had been an effective one, and
ne stu followed the trail, now marked bv
blood From the direction the wounded