of the largest size, is the kind used for brooms. The white birch, a small tree, is of less value than any other; it is quite common in our neighborhood; we have understood, indeed, that all the birches are found in this county, except the little dwarf birch, an Alpine shrub, only a foot or so in height.
Monday, 20th.—The potato crop is quite a good one this year, in our neighborhood, though a portion of it will be lost. But the disease has never been as fatal here as in some other places, and the farms of the county have always yielded more than enough for the population. Some ten years since potatoes sold here for twelve and a half cents a bushel; since then they have risen at the worst season to seventy-five cents. They have been considered high at fifty cents for the last year or two, and are now selling at thirty-one cents a bushel.
Tuesday, 21st.—Again we hear of the panther story. The creature is said to have been actually seen by two respectable persons, in the Beaver Meadows; a woman who was out gathering blackberries saw a large wild animal behind a fallen tree; she was startled, and stopped; the animal, which she believed to be a catamount, got upon the log, and hissed at her like a cat, when she ran away. A man also, who was out with his gun in the woods, a few days later, near the same spot, saw a large wild creature in the distance; he fired, and the animal leaped over a great pile of brush and disappeared. It would be passing strange, indeed, if a panther were actually roving about our woods.!
Wednesday, 22d.—Very pleasant day. There is still a sprinkling of snow in some woods, for the weather has been cool and dry, but the country generally is quite brown again. The western hills are entirely free from snow, while those of the eastern range
