The hunter who told me this could remember one Sam Nutting,who used to hunt bears on Fair Haven Ledges,and exchange their skins for rum in Concord village;who told him,even,that he had seen a moose there.Nutting had a famous foxhound named Burgoyne,-he pronounced it Bugine,-which my informant used to borrow.In the “Wast Book”of an old trader of this town,who was also a captain,town-clerk,and representative,I find the following entry.Jan.18th,1742-3,“John Melven Cr.by 1Grey Fox 0-2-3;”they are not now found here;and in his ledger.Feb.7th,1743,Hezekiah Stratton has credit “by a Catt skin 0-1-4;”of course,a wild-cat,for Stratton was a sergeant in the old French war,and would not have got credit for hunting less noble game.Credit is given for deerskins also,and they were daily sold.One man still preserves the horns of the last deer that was killed in this vicinity,and another has told me the particulars of the hunt in which his uncle was engaged.The hunters were formerly a numerous and merry crew here.I remember well one gaunt Nimrod who would catch up a leaf by the roadside and play a strain on it wilder and more melodious,if my memory serves me,than any hunting-horn.
At midnight,when there was a moon,I sometimes met with hounds in my path prowling about the woods,which would skulk out of my way,as if afraid,and stand silent amid the bushes till I had passed.
Squirrels and wild mice disputed for my store of nuts.There were scores of pitch pines around my house,from one to four inches in diameter,which had been gnawed by mice the previous winter,-a Norwegian winter for them,for the snow lay long and deep,and they were obliged to mix a large proportion of pine bark with their other diet.These trees were alive and apparently flourishing at midsummer,and many of them had grown a foot,though completely girdled;but after another winter such were without exception dead.It is remarkable that a single mouse should thus be allowed a whole pine tree for its dinner,gnawing round instead of up and down it;but perhaps it is necessary in order to thin these trees,which are wont to grow up densely.
The hares (Lepus Americanus)were very familiar.One had her form under my house all winter,separated from me only by the flooring,and she startled me each morning by her hasty departure when I began to stir,-thump,thump,thump,striking her head against the floor timbers in her hurry.They used to come round my door at dusk to nibble the potato parings which I had thrown out,and were so nearly the color of the ground that they could hardly be distinguished when still.Sometimes in the twilight I alternately lost and recovered sight of one sitting motionless under my window.When I opened my door in the evening,off they would go with a squeak and a bounce.Near at hand they only excited my pity.One evening one sat by my door two paces from me,at first trembling with fear,yet unwilling to move;a poor wee thing,lean and bony,with ragged ears and sharp nose,scant tail and slender paws.It looked as if Nature no longer contained the breed of nobler bloods,but stood on her last toes.Its large eyes appeared young and unhealthy,almost dropsical.I took a step,and lo,away it scud with an elastic spring over the snow-crust,straightening its body and its limbs into graceful length,and soon put the forest between me and itself,-the wild free venison,asserting its vigor and the dignity of Nature.Not without reason was its slenderness.Such then was its nature.(Lepus,levipes,lightfoot,some think.)
What is a country without rabbits and partridges?They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products;ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times;of the very hue and substance of Nature,nearest allied to leaves and to the ground,-and to one another;it is either winged or it is legged.It is hardly as if you had seen a wild creature when a rabbit or a partridge bursts away,only a natural one,as much to be expected as rustling leaves.The partridge and the rabbit are still sure to thrive,like true natives of the soil,whatever revolutions occur.If the forest is cut off,the sprouts and bushes which spring up afford them concealment,and they become more numerous than ever.That must be a poor country indeed that does not support a hare.Our woods teem with them both,and around every swamp may be seen the partridge or rabbit walk,beset with twiggy fences and horse-hair snares,which some cow-boy tends.