152 NARRATIVES. 



I approached my antagonist as near as I could without draw- 

 ing his fire ; and placing the muzzle of my rifle within three 

 feet of his head, blazed away, and blew his head clean off. I 

 approached the carcass for the purpose of taking off my trap, 

 (congratulating myself on my good success), when he made 

 a sudden convulsive movement, and, oh horror ! such a dis- 

 charge of the genuine article, no man ever saw or smelt ! 

 However, by a quick movement I escaped the charge myself, 

 but my trap, as usual, was thoroughly perfumed. I soon had 

 an opportunity to try again, and this time I succeeded, by the 

 following device. Watching my opportunity when the skunk 

 turned his eyes from me, I dealt him a heavy blow across the 

 back with a long club, and immediately loosened the trap from 

 off his leg. In this way I ever after managed to keep clear 

 from scent, with a single exception, which occurred as fol- 

 lows : 



In one of my excursions, accompanied by another person, 

 the dog scented something under the floor of an old shanty, 

 which we concluded must be a mink ; so at it we went tear- 

 ing up the floor, to give the dog a chance to get at the animal. 

 Up came one plank after another in quick succession, when 

 all at once the dog made a tremendous lunge right into the 

 midst of a nest of seven nearly full grown skunks. In less 

 than a minute the atmosphere was blue with the most horrible 

 stench ever encountered by human olfactories. The dog was 

 soon nearly choked and blinded by the showers of stifling 

 spray that met him at every charge, and, for the time be- 

 ing, all were obliged to beat a hasty retreat into the open 

 air. But as we were all now fairly in for it, we concluded 

 to make another charge and finish up the work we had so 

 enthusiastically begun ; and, armed each with a long club, we 

 returned to the fray, and, with the help of the dog, soon 

 despatched the foe, and retreated to the windward to get clear 

 of the stench. But it was of no use. I seemed to be scented 

 through and through ; my very breath seemed to be hot with 

 the terrible miasma ; and for several days I could scarcely 

 taste or smell any thing but skunk. This was my most seri- 

 ous encounter with the skunk family, though I continued to 



