The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-12-20

said to HE father that he could beat him 10 the
barn. The father pretended to race With the
boy; and to please him let him &c, some dis.
going past a DOW shed between he house and
the harm the shed fol- to the ground beneath the
weight Of snow ard crushed the boy 10 death.
Sam Darbee wasted away after that and didn't
live stx months.
".Darbee and Peter Stewart used to be great
and they were plentiful enough to mako wolf
trapping profitable; One time the two trappers
for wolves. They had captured several. and one
morning went out as usual to look after their
BEEN set the trap E wasn't ~ To TO tp0t fe wneL' I fh nSs
we're plenty of signs that an animal OF some
plain that whatever the captive might have
been, II had torn the trap from its fastenings
and walked away with II,
"DHrbee AID Stewart went skirmlshing. aud
At lust stewart came upon a big gray wolf
lying In G bush with the trap fast TO one of 1t.
away, In spite of the hindrance o; the trap, aLa
gait that soon took II out Of Stewards sight. He
followed It,, though, and soon came up TO u.
The trap. bad caught between two trees and the
wolf could 40 no further. stewart ran forward
But the WOLF wasn't in the humor to stand still
and have its brains knocked, out without pro-
test, and when Stewart made the attempt to
thet Stewart found the settling of It not an easy
thing. In the struggle the wolf ,unfastened
prsGchss. where trap caught again, In the
y ~ % " lIN0 IL IIhH II tVTt ltb IDOJ Ou,
and away 1t went on, three legs. Darbee's dog
WINS put on the track. Stewart followed. and y
mile on came to the wolf. and the dog engaged
IN q desperate night In q swamp. Stewart
pitched in, but before he succeeded in killing
the wolf both he and the dog were well gashed
been so desperate In fact. that when Stewart ut
last dealt the blow that killed the wolf he was
completely exhausted. When Darbee came up
he found Stewart on the ground unable to rise,
and DSr1ee had to help him @ their cabin: 49,,
As late as lS46 panthers were still plentiful
In northern sullivan county. Amos Shelley
killed one ! ear sam Darbee's place in that year,
ana | Killed two that s.me year right where the
Manor depot y now, The last panther IN this
county was killed in Neversink IN 1886. There
of he Beaverkili Mountains. hut It Ia rather
tame hunting nowadays to what 1t was in the
old times, when we could stand in our door
yards and knock over n deer almost any day.
Dave ONerton saw forty deer at one time
once in Shandiey Pond. and / nave seen
as many as twenty together myself. sport
ing in the water. The Overions were great
venison eaters, and when Dave was only
10 years old ho frequently. shot deer while
standing. IN the door OF his fathers house.
woods within, my. recollection. There were a
good many elk. still. in sullivan when ! was a
young man. | killed an elk on the East branch
as late as 1915. The streams were literally
nllot with trout, and shad ran clear up into
both the east and west branches Of the Della
setneS. The lakes of the county contained
trout, pickerel not having hren introduced
there yet. Trout weighing eight pounds were
no extraordinary thing when / was young, and
have taken them OF that weight from the
Beavcrkil!. a front less than a mound wasn't
considered ANYTHING % IL catch. Nowadays. II a
fisherman catches four that weigh Il pound
he thinks he has done something great"