Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/153

 the story prevailing at one time, that monkeys had been seen in Virginia. There were otters, minks, wild-cats, polecats, and martens. No reference is made by the early writers to the presence of the porcupine, but in a letter written by John Clayton in 1739, nearly a century and a half after Jamestown was founded, he mentions as a fact that several had been recently killed, although the species was extremely scarce. There were three varieties of squirrel, the gray, the ground, and the flying; of these, the most interesting was the flying. When first discovered, it was considered such a remarkable creature, that it was much sought after by English noblemen as an ornament for their parks, and by English naturalists as a specimen for their cabinets. We are told that King James, who had a special taste for such pets, displayed great anxiety to obtain one of these natural curiosities when information as to their existence in Virginia reached England, and doubtless his wish was gratified. This species of squirrel was not infrequently seen to make a flight of thirty or forty yards in passing from tree to tree. The ground squirrel appeared hardly less interesting on account of the beauty of its coat, this being spotted like the skin of a fawn. The gray squirrel was as large as the English rabbit. The hare does not seem to have been abundant in the neighborhood of Jamestown,