1907
July 15
  As I was walking along the river path at Ball's Hill
about 9:30 P.M. I started a good-sized animal from
a space of soft sand at our landing within thirty yards
of the cabin. Although the sky was clear and full of
stars it was so intensely dark under the shade of the
trees that I could see nothing but from the sound of
the creatures footsteps as moved first through some rank
weeds within two yards of me and then up the steep
leaf and twig-strewn hillside I knew that it was
trotting slowly and evenly with the steady, mincing
gait so characteristic of the skunk. When it reached
the foot path that leads to the chestnut cabin all
sounds ceased and I concluded that it had taken
advantage of this convenient roadway to move still
further off quickly and in silence. I got a lighted
lantern in the cabin and followed the path for
some distance along the hillside but could neither
see nor hear anything more of the nocturnal visitor.
The next morning I found the (?) grounds by
the landing torn up everywhere by fresh diggings, evidently
those of a Skunk. The persistent beast had not
only raided several nests of the Musk Tortoise,
scattering the eggs shell about about but had also rooted
up a number of small plants that I had put out
in the sand a few days before. That
same morning I visited some more plants that
I had put into the ground near Pine Park shed
and every one of them had been recently unearthed
by a Skunk. Apparently this creature noses out
and investigates every place where the earth has
been loosened or disturbed.
Another Skunk