Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)
General
Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.
Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)
Hunting; Trapping
Mr. Green stated that he was driving a team, hauling supplies for a
lumber camp, when on two occasions he was out on the road until late
at night with his load of supplies some of which consisted of several
quarters of fresh beef. He heard the panther scream out in the woods
and narrowly escaped the panther by whipping the team and driving
rapidly into camp, the panther following him, screaming at every
jump.
A few nights later the panther again attacked Mr. Green near camp. He
heard it scream and again made haste to reach the camp. When near
camp the panther made several attempts to leap onto the wagon, but
owing to Mr. Green's rapid driving the panther failed to reach the
load.
Later, Mr. Green was lumbering in West Virginia. The teamster who was
hauling camp supplies the same as Mr. Green had in Clearfield County,
was killed by a panther. Mr. Green heard the panther scream and when
the teamster did not come, he with others from the camp went in
search of the man, and found him dead. The men in camp made up a
purse to pay the burial expenses, Mr. Green contributing to the fund.
I have often been going along the road at dusk through the woods and
had an owl follow along for some distance, flying from tree to tree,
alighting on trees near me, and would often give one of those
screeches, which no doubt has often been mistaken for the scream of a
panther, when this trick of the owl occurred when too dark to be
seen.
* * *
The screech of the panther I believe to be all imagination. Years ago
it was an everyday occurrence to hear some one tell of a panther
screaming in a certain locality and tell how it (the panther) had
followed them and how they escaped by running their horses, and how
the panther screamed in a tree right over their head, and how they
could see the panther's eyes shine.
Now I know that one cannot see an animal's eyes shine unless the
animal is in the dark and a light shines directly in their eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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