82 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



cranes & prairie hens, must be seen to believe what quan- 

 tities exist here. 



The only noxous animals are prairie wolves, which 

 were so abundent and bold when I first settled here that 

 they would almost steal a fellow's supper from his plate. 

 In fact I knew one instance where some men were camp- 

 ing just where Mr. Eddy's house now stands, & while 

 they were lying with their feet to the fire, one of the 

 varviints crept up & stole a quarter of venison that was 

 roasting upon a stick stuck in the ground ; but before he 

 could get off with his hot supper, one of the men raised 

 up in his bed & his rifle being within reach he shot him 

 dead. 



But they have now got well learnt that white folks do 

 not hold a wolf's life sacred, as the Indians used to. There 

 has been one bear seen and killed in the county since its 

 first settlement. 



Of reptiles, the massasaugas rattle snake is the only 

 very troublesome one, and I don't know of but one death 

 occasioned by the bite of one of them, since the settle- 

 ment of the county, this was a son of Elias Bryant. It is 

 also said that a snake bite was the remote cause of the 

 death of Mrs. Van Volkenburgh. 



Of troublesome insects, the flies that torment our 

 horses & cattle this summer are enough to make any rea- 

 sonable man thankful that he was not born a horse. 



Although I have never found the place in the county 

 where mosquitoes are very plenty I am often reminded 

 by the few that I do find here & there, of the anecdote of 

 the man on the bank of the Mississippi river who seemed 

 to be very busy with both hands, brushing away for life, 

 was enquired of by a traveler if mosquitoes were not 

 troublesome there ; who replied no — brushing them off his 

 face at the same time with both hands — no, not very, but 

 just dovm below they are thick as hell. It is much the 

 case here, although nobody owns the spot where they are, 

 they are very thick jiist down below. 



You have now patiently followed me step by step & 



