462 AUDUBON 



hurrahs. One of them, who was particularly expert, was 

 very fortunate, and snuffed the candle three times out of 

 seven, whilst all the other shots either put out the candle 

 or cut it immediately under the light. 



Of the feats performed by the Kentuckians with the 

 rifle, I could say more than might be expedient on the 

 present occasion. In every thinly peopled portion of the 

 State, it is rare to meet one without a gun of that descrip- 

 tion, as well as a tomahawk. By way of recreation, they 

 often cut off a piece of the bark of a tree, make a target of 

 it, using a httle powder wetted with water or saliva, for the 

 bull's-eye, and shoot into the mark all the balls they have 

 about them, picking them out of the wood again. 



After what I have said, you may easily imagine with 

 what ease a Kentuckian procures game, or despatches an 

 enemy, more especially when I tell you that every one in 

 the State is accustomed to handle the rifle from the time 

 when he is first able to shoulder it until near the close of 

 his career. That murderous weapon is the means of pro- 

 curing them subsistence during all their wild and extensive 

 rambles, and is the source of their principal sports and 

 pleasures. 



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 initials 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, ex- 

 claimed, " Mr. Audubon, is not that a beautiful Squirrel? " 

 " Yes," I answered, " and of a kind that will suffer you to 

 approach it and lay hold of it, if you are well gloved." 

 Mr. D. T., dismounting, took up a dry stick, and advanced 

 towards the pretty animal, with his large cloak floating in 



