kind has been heard of in our part of the country, until within these last few weeks. Probably, if this creature prove really to be a panther, it has strayed from the Catskills.
Saturday, 2d.—Very mild. Unusually dark at eight o'clock. High wind, with heavy, spring-like showers. About noon the sky cleared, and the afternoon was delightful, with a high southwest wind, and a bright sky. A high wind is very pleasant now and then, more especially where such are not common. This evening we enjoyed the breeze very much, as it flew rustling through the naked branches, tossing the evergreen limbs of old pines and hemlocks, and driving bright clouds rapidly across the heavens. Despite the colorless face of the country, everything looked cheerful, as though the earth were sailing on a prosperous voyage before a fresh, fair breeze.
The sun has nearly reached his journey's end. There is a low ridge sloping away into the valley, about half a mile to the south of us, over which he passes completely in his annual voyage. Every clear winter's evening there is a glowing sky beyond it, against which the old pines, with their dark and giant forms, look grandly, adding, as they do, perhaps, a hundred feet to the height. The sun has nearly cleared this point now, and as he turns northward immediately after passing over it, the height is called Sunset Hill in the village.
Monday, 4th.—Charming day. Light sprinkling of snow in the night; but it has already disappeared. The grass on the lawn is quite green again. A light fall of snow, without a hard frost, always brightens the grass, perhaps more even than a spring shower. It often snows here without freezing.
Tuesday, 5th.—Rainy day; but not at all cold.
