The Caledonian

A GREAT PANTHER FIGHT In WARREN COUNTY, MISS.—We are acquainted with all the parties named below, and can vouch for the truth of the statement:

CLEAR CREEK, Nov 21, 1843.

I heard on Sunday last one of the most daring feats of bravery of a youth 12 years of age now on record. On Friday morning, Aquilla Whitaker, son of Isaac Whitaker, Esq., started out hunting about daybreak. He had not gone far before his dogs broke out in a fine cry, and ran about a quarter of a mile and treed. He approached the tree, and saw something which he supposed at first it was a large coon. After getting a fair view, he raised his gun and fired; he made the animal very uneasy; in a few moments he shot him with the other barrel. His ammunition was now out and he saw from the size that it was no coon. He had a small negro boy about 8 years old with him, whom he sent home after ammunition; but before the boy had gone far, the panther began to get uneasy, and sprang from the tree on one of his favorite dogs. He knew in a moment after it was on the ground that it was a panther, (as he says he had seen them in shows and read of them in history.) Soon as it caught his dog, he seized a large stick of wood, as much as he could manage well, and struck it with all his might across its back; at the same time his other dogs began to fight, and before the negro boy returned with the powder and shot, they had conquered the panther. It measured 7 feet 8 inches from tip to tip; his claws were from an inch to an inch and a half in length, and sharp as a cat's. [Vicksburg Whig.