The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-08-14

"Ive seen it disputed in the paper.
that q wildcat, or a catamount. car
make leap of twenty-five feet" said
q resident of Sullivan county TO a New
York sun man, "and would like to
mention what / saw wildcat do once.
was trout fishing on one of the upper
tributaries of the Beayerkill and had
clambered down into deep ravine to
get at a tempting pool at the foot of a
fall, where L was sure my casts would
be rewarded by the killing of some big
trout. 1 was not mistaked as to that.
/ had landed four trout, the smallest
one eighteen inches long, and sat down
to rest the pool. Both sides of the
ravine 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
thelravine happened to glance up to
the top of the rocks opposite me and
saw a hen pheasant, accompanied by
her newly Matched 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 preci-
pice, and it seemed 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 in
slant she turned something like a
shadow fitted across the top of the
ravine, and half second later L saw an
enormous wildcat clinging to the edge
of the opposite wall 10y its 'ore-feet,
holding the pheasant between its jaws.
The wildcat struggled for 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 a splash in the
water and lay motionless ut the edge of
the pool.
Il supposed that the animal had been
watching 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
lance, 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 L
was bending down TO examine him /
saw man with n gun scrambling down
the rocks. The man soon reached my
side, and then l learned that he had
shot the wildcat as the animal was fly
ing across the chasm upon his prey.
Sure enough, just at the base of the
animals brain was the hole made by
the rifle ball. The hunter had been
following the wildcaA for some time,
and had lost track of him, but came
near the edge of the ravine in time to
see him make his leap and follow him
with the bullet. 1t was that which
had stopped the animal short in the
tremendous leap it had calculated on,
or it would have cleared the space with
safety and doubtless with ease. The
wildcat was in reality almost in his
death throes when he struck the pleas
ant, which he had chung to with the
clutch of death, and still held In his
mouth when we dragged him out of the
water. We measured the width of the
chasm across which the wildcat had
made his death leap. The measure
ment was forty til rec feet +"