The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1889-07-26
A WILDCATS AWFUL LEAP.
It Was to Death. but Through No Fault
of the Animals Agility.

It Was to Death, but Through No Fault
of tho Animals Agility.
"Tve seen it disputed in the papers
that q wildcat or catamount, can
make leap of twenty-five feet" said
O resident OF Sullivan county to a re-
porter, land ! would like to mention
what | saw a wildcat do once. was
trout fishing on one of the upper trib-
utaries of the Beaverkill, and had
clambered down into deep ravine to
get at tempting pool at the foot of
the fall, where | was sure my casts
would be rewarded by the killing of
some big trout was not mistaken
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 gradually from its edge
for several feet to heavy growth of
pine.
"As | was sitting at the bottom of
the ravine happened to glance up to
the top of the rocks opposite me, and
saw 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 pleas
ant came near the edge of the precipice,
and it seemed to me that she was plac-
ing her brood in a most dangerous po-
sition, 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 ra-
vine, and half second later | saw an
enormous wildcat clinging to the edge
of the opposite wall by his fore feet,
holding tho pheasant between his
jaws. The wildcat struggled a mo.
ment to drag himself from the edge of
the abyss to sure footing on top of
the rocks, but his effort was in vain,
and he came crashing down the face
of the precipice, still holding the luck
less pheasant in his jaws. lie fell
with crash in the water, and lay mo-
tionless at 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 mis-
judged the distance and fallen short,
with the result so fatal to him.
1.-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 l
saw a man with a gun scrambling
down the rocks. The man soon
reached my side, and | then learned
that he had shot the wildcat as the an
imal was flying across the chasm upon
his prey. Sure enough, just at the
base of the animals brain was the hole
made by tho rifle ball. The hunter
had been following the wildcat 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 havo cleared
the space with safety and doubtless
with ease. The wildcat was in reality
almost in his death throes when he
struck the pheasant, which he 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 measurement was forty-three
feet. New York Sun.