EPISODES 505 



its stern. They both got upon it, were taken up, and 

 afterwards let loose in their native woods. 



In the year 1829, I was in a portion of lower Louisiana, 

 where the Opossum abounds at all seasons, and having 

 been asked by the President and the Secretary of the Zoo- 

 logical Society of London, to forward live animals of this 

 species to them, I offered a price a little above the com- 

 mon, and soon found myself plentifully supplied, twenty- 

 five having been brought to me. I found them excessively 

 voracious, and not less cowardly. They were put into a 

 large box, with a great quantity of food, and conveyed to 

 a steamer bound for New Orleans. Two days afterwards, 

 I went to that city, to see about sending them off to 

 Europe ; but, to my surprise, I found that the old males 

 had destroyed the younger ones, and eaten off their heads, 

 and that only sixteen remained alive. A separate box 

 was purchased for each, and some time after they reached 

 my friends, the Rathbones of Liverpool, who, with their 

 usual attention, sent them off to London, where, on my 

 return, I saw a good number of them in the Zoological 

 Gardens. 



' This animal is fond of grapes, of which a species now 

 bears its name. Persimmons are greedily eaten by it, and 

 in severe weather I have observed it eating lichens. 

 Fowls of every kind, and quadrupeds less powerful than 

 itself, are also its habitual prey. 



The flesh of the Opossum resembles that of a young 

 pig, and would perhaps be as highly prized, were it not 

 for the prejudice generally entertained against it. Some 

 "very particular" persons, to my knowledge, have pro- 

 nounced it excellent eating. After cleaning its body, 

 suspend it for a whole week in the frosty air, for it is not 

 eaten in summer; then place it on a heap of hot wood 

 embers; sprinkle it when cooked with gunpowder; and 

 now tell me, good reader, does it not equal the famed 

 Canvas-back Duck? Should you visit any of our mar- 

 kets, you may see it there in company with the best game. 



