212 



MIDDLE STATES. 



8. Soil. The soil is much better on the whole than in New England, althougn vast tracts 

 of the land are unproductive. With such an extent and diversity of surface, there must, 

 of course, be every variety. A small proportion of the territory only is under cultivation. 



9. Jlnimals. Most of the quadrupeds which we have mentioned in our general view of New 

 England, are found in the Middle States. The moose is only met with along the northern bor- 

 der of New York. The cariboo, Canada lynx, and wolverene, are not found so fai south. The 

 beaver, fisher, woodchuck, badger, raccoon, fox, weasel, various squirrels, &c , are common 

 to these and the more northern States. The common deer is found in small numbers on Long 

 Island, and is abundant in the northern and western jiarts of New York, and in the mountainous 

 regions of Pennsylvania. The traveler over the Alleghany Mountains will frequently dine upon 

 venison, and, as he passes along the romantic banks of the Juniata, will hear the hounds in pur- 

 suit of the deer, and will see the hunters at their several stations, waiting till the tired animal 

 seeks refuge in the stream, that they may shoot him down. The American elk is also occa- 

 sionally found in the deep solitudes of these mountains. Black bears* and wolves are met with 



* The following descriptions are extracted from the Cab- 

 inet of Natural History, and will convey a good idea of the 

 manners and. habits of some of the wild animals in the 

 Middle States : 



A Bear Hunt, iii Delaware County, K. Y. "On the 

 day 4if the present hunt, I was joined by a very particular 

 friend, and a great huntsman, and we took witli us, for our 

 day's sport, nine dogs, and two men to assist in leading 

 the dogs. Five of these animals were experienced and 

 well broken, but the other four were young, and about, for 

 the first time, to range the forest after a bear. 



" It may, perhaps, be worthy of remark, for the informa- 

 tion of those who know but little of these animals, tliat 

 old bears seldom tree to clear themselves of dogs, if there 

 is any possibility of escape without it ; and when neces- 

 sity compels them to this course, they will, on tlie approach 

 of a human creature, in despite of every obstacle which 

 may oppose them, descend to the ground, and take to 

 flight; young bears, however, will climb trees immediate- 

 ly, and often suffer hunters to approacli beneath and shoot 

 them Knowing the present animal to be an old and for- 

 midable antagonist, and judging, from the noise of the 

 dogs, that he was in a tree, my companion thouglit it most 

 advisable to destroy him at once, lest he should kill more 

 of our dogs, as by this time he had killed one, and disa- 

 bled two others; he accordingly approached with much 

 caution, until within about eighty yards of the tree in 

 which the bear had taken refuge, when, with much deli- 

 beration, he fired at his head, and, being a first rate shot, 

 I felt confident that the animal would have fallen dead ; 

 but, to our jjreat surprise, the shot did not take elTect, 

 owing to the ball having struck, and glanced from a small 

 dead limb, which was immediately in front of the bear's 

 head, but completely unnoticed bv my friend. At the re- 

 port of his rifle, the bear descended backwards, for about 

 ten feet, then doubled himself in the form of a hoop, and 

 fell to the ground. 



" It is well known among hunters, that, should an old 

 bear be surprised on a tree, he will never descend by slid- 

 ing down, but, like this bear, roll himself up and fall, 

 sometimes from a most astonishing height, even forty or 

 fifty feet; in which case, he alw.ays alights on his rump, 

 and when on the side of a hill, will roll like a hoop to tlie 

 bottom. I have, in several instances, shot them after such 

 falls, and found the e.Ktent of injury received was a few 

 slight bruises near the root of the tail. E.xperienced dogs 

 are aware of this strataijem of tlie bear, and, so soon as he 

 lets go his hold, they will run from under the tree to avoid 

 his fall. This plan also, the bear adopts to clear himself 

 of dogs, as he knows, that should he descend the tree 

 gradually, he must encounter a host of enemies, the mo- 

 ment he reaches the ground. In the present instance, the 

 dogs knew the character of their antagonist, and ran so far 

 from under the tree, that the bear had recovered from liig 

 fall, and ran three hundred yards ere they could over- 

 take him. 



" The battle now began to rage most furiously, and we 

 were alarmed for the fite of our dogs, and endeavored to 

 shoot him, but fcund it impossible to do so without endan- 



gering some of the dogs. He then laid on his back, and 

 would frequently drag some of the dogs to him, in order to 

 squeeze them to death ; but, being broad across the chest, 

 failed to effect his purpose. This the old dogs knew well, 

 and the moment he would seize them, they would close in 

 with his breast, and slip out backwards from hitn. 



" Our presence excited the dogs to fight with the ut- 

 most ferocity and exceeding courage, for half an hour ; but 

 the bear was an overmatch for them, and we were fearful 

 that he would bite them in pieces, and escape at last, with 

 out our being able to get a ball into him. Amongst our 

 dogs was a favorite old dog we called ' Drive,' and, with- 

 out e.vception, the best dog to hunt I ever saw, and withal 

 the most couragous. He had been our companion, both 

 in toil and pleasure, for several years, and his encounters 

 with wild animals were so numerous, that often has been 

 the time that we have carried him from the field of battle, 

 helpless and mangled, for miles, to our houses, but always 

 on recovering he was eager to engage in deadly strife with 

 any monster of the forest. This old dog, in the present 

 battle, had seized the bear by the back of the neck, with 

 so firm a hold as to disable him, in some measure, from 

 injuring the other dogs. The bear, however, endeavored 

 to rid himself of Drive, in every possible way, but to no 

 effect ; thinking now it would be a good opportunity to 

 despatch him, I resolved to try the virtue of my hunting- 

 knife, and approached him with a view of stabbing him ; 

 but tlie bear immediately broke away from the dogs, and 

 then threw himself on his back again ; and when in this 

 position, I set my rifle against a tree, and attempted to 

 make the fatal stroke. The bear anticipated my intention, 

 and met my blow with a stroke of his paw, with so much 

 force as to knock the knife from my hand to the distance 

 of thirty feet, and then arose, and made a bold push at 

 me ; but I showed him a light pair of heels, and being 

 again seized by the dogs, he was deterred from further 

 pursuit. VVe then thought of other means, and com- 

 menced cutting large clubs; but whilst engaged at this, 

 the bear, disrelishing his new enemies, cleared himself of 

 the dogs, which were so disabled by this time, that they 

 could hardly fight more, and made off at full speed. I 

 seized my rifle, and, just as he was springing over an old 

 hemlock log, I fired at him ; but, being afraid of shooting 

 the dogs, I shot too high, and only cut him across the 

 rump, as he pitched over the log. This put him to a 

 stand, and he ascended a tree, to the height of about forty 

 feet, when I approached, and shot him through the 

 heart." 



A.v EXTRAORDiNARv WoLF HuNT. The following ex- 

 tract is part of an account given of a wolf who was run 

 down by some hunters, who resided in the village of De- 

 posit, in Delaware county. New York. This animal had 

 lost three toes from one of his feet, and on this account 

 was called the " three-legged wolf" He was particularly 

 famous for his depredations among the sheep, and had 

 been frequently pursued, but from his great sagacity had 

 hitherto escaped. No less than forty-five persons had ori- 

 ginally started in the chase, on the present occasion ; but 



