his home. It was early in life that the naturalists' 

 traits manifested themselves, as he says in his autobio- 

 graphical summary. "I was noted for planting tooth- 

 picks to raise geese, and for hugging goslings to death, 

 a budding of ornithological tastes. This occurred in 

 1837 an d continued, say, to 1840. I went to a country 

 school in summer, walked a mile over hills and bad 

 roads, taking side paths thru the fields to hunt bird 

 nests, shells and reptiles, which I preserved till some 

 naturalist captured the specimens for little or nothing. 

 The most noted of these captures was a living copper- 

 head snake which my sister Mary and I found while 

 crossing a newly cleared field, and which finally went 

 alive to England. I had many hunts for quadrupeds 

 and preserved some up to the size of gray and fox squir- 

 rels, besides keeping red and flying squirrels, a racoon, 

 oppossum, and other animals as pets, which attracted 

 much interest among visitors. I had a boy's mania for 

 hunting, and altho I could only get small animals and 

 birds, I spent many a day in shooting, no doubt with 

 impoverishment to physical health. I would wade thru 

 snow knee-deep for miles with poor results as to game, 

 but thought if I ever went into a wild country the hunt- 

 er's life would be my choice. Why man could not live 

 happy on the natural products of the forests and streams 

 was a problem I expected to solve in the future. About 

 this time Tanner's 'Thirty Years Among the Indians of 

 Canada' showed me much of the difficulties in the way 



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