6The bear and panther that populated the woods and canebrakes of the lower Mississippi Valley in the 1800s left a permanent mark on the collective memory of that region. Unfortunately only a relatively small number of writings from that time have survived that provide real insight into the habits of those creatures and how the early settlers of that region hunted them. Writer James T. McCafferty has added richly to that scant body of Southern lore by collecting some wonderful but previously overlooked articles by an antebellum cotton planter and physician and presenting them in his new book, Hunting Bear and Panther in the Old South: The Writings of Dr. Henry J. Peck of Sicily Island, Louisiana. McCafferty, author of The Bear Hunter: The Life and Times of Robert Eager Bobo in the Canebrakes of the Old South and numerous articles on hunting history, introduces Peck's writings with a brief biography of Dr. Peck (1803-1881) and an overview of his works. Besides Peck's writing on the life cycles and the hunting of the animals named in the title, the book includes articles on hog and deer hunting in his day. Readers will find in this volume rarely encountered details about the weapons and methods used by nineteenth century sportsmen, such as Peck's descriptions of the "fire hunting" of deer, the making of the knives used by bear hunters, and accounts of dangerous-and even deadly-encounters with panther and bear. One of the book's appendices adds Peck's personal investigations and thoughts on the early 18th century fights between the French and the Natchez Indian tribe that took place on or near the doctor's appropriately named Battleground Plantation. Hunters and lovers of Southern history will welcome this book.