104 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



in the woods. One route lay through Coudersport. 

 When within two or three miles of that town, we were 

 met by a young man on a cantering horse. He drew 

 up his perspiring steed and inquired whether we had 

 seen a team on the road that was bringing a load of 

 goods from Wellsville, New York. Among the goods 

 was a quantity of shot which his firm had given the 

 driver a commission to procure for them. He de- 

 scribed the man and team. We told him no such man 

 and team had been seen. Turning his horse, quickly, 

 and urging it into a gallop, he disappeared up the road 

 m.uttering incoherent imprecations against tardy team- 

 sters in general. Wellsville, at that time, was the 

 nearest point from Coudersport at which a railroad 

 could be reached. 



The presence of so many people near the town, 

 engaged in killing, catching, buying and shipping pi- 

 geons had caused such an influx of money, that the 

 dealers in hunters' and sportsmen's supplies were anx- 

 ious to meet the demand as far as possible. Their 

 stock of shot had become exhausted. Hence the dis- 

 patch of a courier to hurry up the laggard teamster. 



On entering the town, its streets, usually so quiet, 

 presented a novel spectacle. Men carrying gune were 

 coming into town from various directions. They came 

 in carriages, buggies, lumber wagons, on horseback and 

 on foot. A motley crowd. The scene was analogous 

 to nothing else I ever saw, unless it w^as an assembling 

 of militia for an old-fashioned general training. 



