Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1879 — Mrs. Utt’s Fight with an Eagle. [ARTICLE]

Mrs. Utt’s Fight with an Eagle.

Parts of Preston, Township, thirty miles from this place, are yet as wild as they were when the Indians inhabited the region. Some of the highest elevations in Pennsylvania we in

Preston. These are rocky peaks, abounding in deep ravines and caverns. In this wild territory there are seventeen large lakes, some of them on the very crests of the mountains, more than two thousand feet above the sea. These lakes are fall of fish, awl are favorite resorts of enormous fish hawks, which find abundant food in the bass, pickerel and perch that they catch. There are also many eagles, and they subsist by robbing the hawks when they rise laden with nsh from the lakes. The inaccessible crags and ravines afford them secure resting {daces, and here eagles still rear their young. Specimens measuring over seven feet from tap to tip have been shot near the lakes. Fishermen often see fierce battles between the hawk and the eagle, and often both eagle and hawk are brought down by the sportsman's rifle. At times the eagles extend their foraging expeditions to the fanning country south and north of the wildemess.j In the spring they annoy the fanners, for they sweep down boldly upon the sheep pastures and oarry off lambs and poultry. A farmer named Utt, who lives near one of the lakes in Preston Township, has a two-year-old game-cook that was presented to his wile, and she has taken a liking to the fowl. Thursday last, while Her husband was absent in Deposit, Mrs. Utt heard a commotion among the chickens in the barnyard, and, on running out, found her game rooster fighting with what she supposed was a very large hawk, which was tryingto fasten its talons in the chicken. The two birds were so deeply engaged in the combat that Mrs. Utt’s shouts did not frighten the enemy away. She picked up a stick and ran into the barnyard and struck the intruder. This did not apparently alarm it. Then she seized it by the neck with her hands, and for the first time she saw that it was an eagle. The powerful bird buried its claws deep in Mrs. Utt’s arm. She did not dare let go her hold, although the eagle was tearing her flesh dreadfully. She tightened her grasp upon its throat, and then threw herself heavily to the ground upon it. In this way she kept it down, and choked it to death. The flesh on Mrs. Utt’s arm was tom to the bone in places. The eagle measured nearly five feet from tip to tip.— Honesdale (Pa.) Cor. N. Y. Sun.