OPOSSUM HUNTING. 261 
‘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 sally out for ’possum 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 afew 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 unfrequently into the 
very jaws of the dog; if this is not the case, a short 
