Appalachian Mountains May 10, 1829. Meshach Browning, a huntsman, tells of a strange encounter with an unusual beast while out hunting in local mountains.
Browning stated:
“I saw a bear coming to his feeding place; and such a looking animal I had never in my life seen. He was long and tall, and his back bowed up like a fighting hog; his legs looked like a naked man’s arms, and he walked along as if he scarcely felt the ground – in fact he was the poorest looking beast I had ever seen. He came out until he reached the tracks which I had made in the forepart of the day, when off he broke. I sent two good dogs after him, and in a few minutes they were out of hearing; but in an hour or two the dogs returned, completely tired.”
Browning recounted another incident that night or early morning, this time concerning an unusual forest sound. He tells us:
“Some time late in the night, I was awakened by the most frightful noise I ever heard in my life. It was as loud and harsh as the lowing of an ox, and seemed to echo from the other side of the hill on which I was camped, and the whole space above seemed to resound with the noise. It continued for twenty minutes, as near as I could judge, and seemed to die away by degrees, until all was again quiet. I supposed then, and yet think, that it was caused by two old male panthers, which had met and got into a fight; and being of the cat species, they make a similar noise, only much stronger and coarser. But I cannot say for certain what animal made the noise.”
Elizabeth B
Incredibly written. Wow.