84 A RACOON DESCRIBED. 



lianas which droop from the branches overhead. Don't 

 be afraid of the rattlesnakes, though they abound in our 

 neighbourhood ; for they are so benumbed with the cold, 

 you might kick them without any danger. Hallo ! 

 mind what you are about ! You are carrying your rifle 

 so awkwardly, that a bullet will go right through my 

 head if a twig should happen to catch in your trigger ! 

 Dolly ! " he shouted to his domestic, " come here, you 

 rascal ! Bring the light. Cannot you see that this 

 stranger is unaccustomed to night excursions in a Ken- 

 tucky forest ? " 



In fact, while their father was employing all the 

 necessary precautions to spare me a painful fall in the 

 midst of the obstacles of a woodland path, the young 

 people had taken the lead, guided by the barking of the 

 dogs, who had surprised a racoon in an isolated bush, 

 and hemmed him in with remarkable instinct. When 

 we came up with them, the animal was dead. The eldest 

 of Mr. Danielson's sons had stunned him with a blow 

 from a stick. 



I halted, naturally, to examine at leisure the strange 

 quadruped, which I then saw for the first time. He was 

 about the size of a fox, with this distinction, that his 

 body was larger and more compact. Like the snout of 

 the wipes of France, that of the racoon was narrow and 

 pointed, the head enlarged on the side of the temples. 

 What distinguished him from a fox was his ears. These 

 were very differently shaped, and gave the animal a 

 physiognomy wholly unlike that of his congener. His 

 tail was bushier, and divided into bands of brown and 

 black. The fore-legs were shorter than the hind, so that, 

 when standing on all fours, the racoon was more elevated 



