Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 3).djvu/239

 fox, but not so tall and more robust. Taken young, it very soon grows tame, and stays in the house, where it catches mice similar to a cat. The name of lotor is very appropriate, as the animal retires in preference in the hollow trees that grow by the side of creeks or small rivers that run through the swamp; and in these sorts of marshes it is most generally found. It is most common in the southern and western states, as well as in the remote parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. It is very destructive in the corn fields. The usual method of catching this animal is with dogs, in the dead of the night, as it is very rarely to be seen in the day time. Its skin is very much esteemed, throughout the United States, by the hat manufacturers, who purchase them at the rate of two shillings each.

Nearer toward the houses the inhabitants are infested with squirrels, which do also considerable damage to the corn. This species sciurus corolinianus, is of a greyish colour, and rather larger than those in Europe. The number of them is so immense, that several times a day the children are sent round the fields to frighten them away. At the least noise they run out by dozens, and take shelter upon the trees, whence they come down the very moment after. {175} As well as the bears in North America, they are subject to emigrations. Toward the approach of winter they appear in so great a number, that the inhabitants are obliged to meet together in order to destroy them. An excursion for this purpose, every now and then, is looked upon as pleasure. They go generally two by two, and kill sometimes thirty or forty in a morning. A single man, on the contrary, could scarcely kill one, as the squirrel, springing upon the branch of a tree, keeps turning round successively to put himself in opposition to the gunner. I was at one of