Raccoon 
themselves to the changed conditions forced upon them by the 
settling of the country and the consequent thinning of the 
forests and swamps. 
In a previous chapter | have mentioned the pine marten, or 
American sable, as a creature to all outward appearances, at 
least, well enough fitted for dwelling in a partially cultivated 
region without departing so very widely from the ways of its 
ancestors, but which has, nevertheless, been invariably one of 
the very first to disappear before advancing civilization, the 
value of its fur alone certainly not being sufficient to account 
for its extermination. 
The raccoon, on the other hand, furnishes us with just the 
opposite example. A creature of somewhat clumsy and delib- 
erate movements as compared with the majority of the wood- 
dwellers; requiring a pretty large space for a hiding-place or 
bedroom, and generally insisting on a hollow tree of good size 
or cavern among the rocks for its accommodation; persecuted 
everywhere and at all seasons both by men and dogs, and in 
spite of it all, not only holding its own in most places where 
it has ever been found in any numbers, but apparently even 
increasing and establishing itself in districts where, until quite 
recently, it has been practically unknown. 
I cannot discover that they have ever been abundant in 
this vicinity (Southern New Hampshire) from the time when 
the country was first settled to the present. In _ fact, all 
those that I can obtain any account of as_ having been 
killed here, until quite recently, appear to have been regarded 
almost as curiosities hardly to be recognized even by the 
oldest hunters, yet one would suppose that formerly the 
country must have been much better suited to their tastes than 
now. 
From all accounts the original growth of forests that stood 
here was composed much more largely of hard woods, white 
oak, beech and maple than the woods now left us, composed 
principally of white pine, hemlock and birch, furnishing neither 
food nor lodging to the raccoon’s taste. 
Within the last two or three years, however, raccoons have 
unquestionably become not uncommon in this and most of the 
neighbouring townships, so that coon hunts are becoming quite 
popular and usually prove fairly successful, the barking of coon 
248 

