( 310 ) 



THE TRAVELLER AND THE POLE-CAT. 



On a journey from Louisville to Henderson in Kentucky, performed 

 during very severe winter weather, in company with a foreigner, the ini- 

 tials of whose name are D. T., my companion spying a beautiful animal, 

 marked with black and pale yellow, and having a long and bushy tail, 

 exclaimed, " Mr Audubon, is not that a beautiful squirrel P" " Yes," I 

 answered, " and of a kind that will suffer you to approach it, and lay 

 hold of it, if you are weU gloved." Mr D. T. dismounting, took up a 

 dry stick, and advanced toward the pretty animal, with his large cloak 

 floating in the breeze. I think I see him approach, and laying the stick 

 gently across the body of the animal, try to secure it ; and I can yet 

 laugh almost as heartily as I then did, when I plainly saw the discomfi- 

 ture of the traveller. The Pole-cat, (for a true Pole-cat it was, the 

 Mephitis americana of zoologists), raised its fine bushy tail, and shower- 

 ed such a discharge of the fluid given him by nature as a defence, that 

 my friend, dismayed and infuriated, began to belabour the poor animal. 

 The swiftness and good management of the Pole-cat, however, saved its 

 bones, and as it made its retreat towards its hole, it kept up at every 

 step a continued ejectment, which fully convinced the gentleman that the 

 pursuit of such squirrels as these was at the best an vmprofi table employ- 

 ment. 



This was not all, however. I could not suffer his approach, nor 

 could my horse ; it was with difficulty he mounted his own ; and we 

 were forced to continue our journey far asunder, and he much to leeward. 

 Nor did the matter end here. We could not proceed much farther that 

 night ; as, in the first place, it was nearly dark when we saw the Pole- 

 cat, and as, in the second place, a heavy snow-storm began, and almost 

 impeded our progress. We were forced to make for the first cabin we 

 saw. Having asked and obtained permission to rest for the night, we 

 dismounted and found ourselves amongst a crowd of men and women 

 who had met for the purpose of corn-shucking. 



To a European who has not visited the western parts of the United 

 States, an explanation of this corn-shucking may not be unacceptable. 



