OPOSSUM IIUNTIXC;. '^61 



'possum hunting, far excels the enthusiasm of the most 

 inveterate follower after nobler beasts. 



Fine moonlight nights are generally chosen on such 

 occasions ; three or four negroes, armed with a couple 

 of axes, and accompanied by a cur dog, who understands 

 his business, will .^ally out for ■pos.suui hunting:, and 

 nothing can be more joyous, than their loud laugh and 

 coarse joke on these midnight hunts. The dog scents 

 the animals, for they are numerous, and " barks up the 

 right tree.'' A torch made of light wood or pitch pine, 

 is soon diffusing a brilliant light, and the axe is struck 

 into the tree containing the game, — let it be a big tree 

 or a small one, it matters not ; the growth of a century, 

 or of a few years only, yields to the " forerunner of civ- 

 ilization," and comes to the ground. 



While this is going on the dog keeps his eye on the 

 'possum, barking all the while with the greatest anima- 

 tion. In the mean time, the negroes, as they relieve 

 each other at the work of chopping, make night vocal 

 with laughter and songs, and on such occasions particu- 

 larly, will you hear " Sitting on a Rail," cavatina fash- 

 ion, from voices that would command ten thousand a 

 year from any opera manager on the Continent. 



The tree begins to totter ; the motion is new to the 

 'possum, and as it descends, the little animal instinc- 

 tively climbs to the highest limb. Crash, and off 

 he goes to the ground, and not unfreijuently into the 

 very jaws of the dog ; if this is not the case, a sliort 



