Note 380 — NEW ENGLISH CANAAN OR NEW CANAAN. (continued 2)

Morton, as was natural for a keen sportsman who had himself been in the tropics, was wiser on the subject of Lions than other Englishmen in New England. From the first landing at Plymouth, when John Goodman and Peter Browne, getting lost in the woods, heard “two lions roaring exceedingly,” down to 1639, when Josselyn heard “of a young Lyon (not long before) kill’d at Pascataway by an Indian,” there were vague stories of these animals having been either seen or heard in the New England woods. Josselyn argued on the great probability that there were lions because there were jackals (Rarities, p. 21); and Wood said that “the Virginians saw an old Lyon in their Plantation, who having lost his Iackall, which was wont to hunt his prey, was brought so poore that he could goe no further.” (Prospect, p. 17.) Strachey speaks of having found the skins and claws of lions in the hands of the Indians. (Historie, p. 124.) The animal referred to in all these cases was doubtless the Panther or Catamount (Felis concolor). On this subject see also Young’s Chron. of Pilg., p. 176, note; Tuckerman’s New England’s Rarities, p. 57, note; and the Mem. History of Boston, vol. i. p. 9.