The Connecticut is about twenty rods wide between Brattleboro and Hinsdale. This mountain, according to Frost, 1064 feet high. It is the most remarkable feature here. The village of Brattleboro is peculiar for the nearness of the primitive wood and the mountain. Within three rods of Brown’s house was excellent botanical ground on the side of a primitive wooded hillside, and still better along the Coldwater Path. But, above all, this everlasting mountain is forever lowering over the village, shortening the day and wearing a misty cap each morning . . .

  P.M.—To and up a brook north of Brown’s house . . .

  A very interesting sight from the top of the mountain was that of the cars so nearly under you, apparently creeping along, you could see so much of their course . . .

  The most interesting sight I saw in Brattleboro was the skin and skull of a panther (Felis concolor) (cougar, catamount, painter, American lion, puma), which was killed, according to a written notice attached, on the 15th of June by the Saranac Club of Brattleboro, six young men, on a fishing and hunting excursion. This paper described it as eight feet in extreme length and weighing one hundred and ten pounds. The Brattleboro newspaper says its body was “4 feet 11 inches in length, and the tail 2 feet 9 inches; the animal weighed 108 pounds.” I was surprised it its great size and apparent strength. It gave one a new idea of our American forests and the vigor of nature here . . .