Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-07-18
A WILD CATS AWFUL LEAP.


1T WAS TO DEATH, BUT THROUGH NO
FAULT OF THE ANIMALS AGILITY.
From the New York Sun.
"I've seen it disputed in the papers
that wildcat, or catamOunt, can make
a leap of twenty-five feet" said resi-
dent of Sullivan county, "and 1 would
like to mention what saw wildcat do
once. | was trout fishing on one of the
tributaries of the Beaverkill, and had
clambered down into deep ravine to
get at tempting pool at the foot of a
fall, where L was sure my casts would
be rewarded by the killing of some big
trout. was not mistaken as to that.
l had landed four trout, the smallest
one eighteen inches long, and sat down
to rest the pool Both sides of the ra-
vine were perpendicular walls of rock,
probably twenty-five feet high. The
summit of the wall on the side of the
creek opposite to me sloped back grad
ually from its edge for several feet to a
heavy growth of pine.
"As l was sitting at the bottom of the
ravine happened to glance up to the
top of the rocks opposite me, and saw a
hen pheasant accompanied by her new
ly-hatched brood come out of the pines
and scratch and peck her way along the
sloping open space hunting food for her
young, which clustered closely about
her. The pheasant came very close to
the edge of the precipice, and it SEEM
ed to me that she was placing her brood
In most dangerous position, when she
turned as if to walk back with them to
the pines. The instant she turned
something like shadow fitted across
the top of the ravine, and half second
later saw an enormous wildcat cling
ing to the edge of the opposite wall by
his fore feet, holding the pheasant be-
tween his jaws. The wildcat struggled
for a moment to drag himself from the
edge of the abyss to a sure footing on
the top of the rocks, but his effort was in
vain, and he came crashing down the
face of the precipice, still holding the
luckless pheasant in his jaws. He fell
with splash in the water, and lay mo-
81 supposed that the animal had been
the pheasant from the bushes
on top of the rocks opposite where the
bird had appeared with her brood, and
at his opportunity had leaped across to
seize her, but had misjudged the dis
tance and fallen short, with the result so
fatal to him.
''The whirl of the water brought the
wildcat around in short time to the
side where l was standing, and as / was
bending down to examine him / saw
man with gun scrambling down the
locks. The man soon reached my side,
md then learned that he had shot the
wildcat as the animal was flying across
he chasm upon his prey. Sure enough,
ust at the base of the brain was the hole
made by the rifle ball. The hunter had
been following the wildcat for some
lime and had lost sight of him, but
came near the edge of the ravine in time
20 see him make his leap and follow
him with the bullet. 1t was that which
lad stopped the animal short in the tre-
nendous leap it had calculated on, or it
would have cleared the space with safe
y and doubtless with ease. The wild
at was in reality almost in his death
hroes when he struck the pleasant,
which he elung to with the clutch of
leath, and still held in his mouth when
We dragged him out of the water. We
measured the width of the ehasm across
which the wildcat had made his death
cap. The measurement was forty-three
eet