AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
35 
places. In some spots the council-fire seems to have been 
suddenly extinguished, and the yell and the war-whoop 
to have immediately succeeded. Near the summit of one 
of our hills there is a number of Indian graves, in which 
the bodies seem to have been interred singly, and in the 
modern style of sepulture. 
These few anecdotes will be sufficient to demonstrate 
the wonderful changes which often occur in some parts of 
our country, even when uninfluenced by peculiar local 
advantages, or by the all-pervading stimulus of commer- 
cial speculation. The same individual might have here 
seen the same spot of earth, at one time a wild forest, 
the haunt of the Indian and the resort of beasts of prey, 
and at another the site of a flourishing town, and a distin- 
guished abode of science and the liberal arts. Along the 
same path where he once pursued the deer, the bear, and 
the panther, he might now on either side behold the com- 
modious dwellings of a refined society, and spacious temples 
devoted to a pure religion. He might have seen the wily 
Indian paddling his rude canoe gently over the surface of 
our creek, to surprise his game in the tangled brake, where 
now he hears the ceaseless splashing of the mill wheel, or 
beholds the highly cultivated field rich with the golden 
harvest. In a word, “ he might here have seen all the in- 
termediate stages through which a people pass, from the 
most simple to the highest degrees of civilization.” How 
important, then, is it if we wish to preserve accurate anec- 
dotes of our early history, to seize upon all existing facts, 
and all present authentic reminiscences, before every ves- 
tige of the past is hurried to hopeless oblivion. 
On som e of the Reptiles of our neighbourhood. 
No department of the animal kingdom has furnished so 
much amusement to my leisure hours, as the class called 
Reptilia; and in the vast assemblage of animals grouped 
by naturalists under this name, those familiarly known by 
the name of the Tortoise, have been peculiarly interesting. 
Count De Cepede happily remarks, “that the tortoise 
has every where been the type of laziness; that it has fur- 
nished the philosophers with speculations, the poet with 
images, and the vulgar with proverbs.” The lover of na- 
ture will frequently meet with much obloquy from the ig- 
norant, and will sometimes be thrown into a little diffi- 
culty in consequence of his favourite pursuit. On one 
occasion, while searching for these animals in the neigh- 
bourhood of a remote, unfrequented town, my motions 
through the woods, and along the streams, were narrowly 
and secretly watched, and on returning to the village, 
while sitting at the tea-table, with one of the officers of the 
peace and his family, the judge was called from the par- 
lour to make out a warrant for my apprehension, the in- 
former testifying that I was a suspicious person, — that he 
had seen, in my room at the inn, a number of vials of 
“ poticary stuff,” and that I had been lurking in the fields 
and woods after no good. The judge could scarcely pa- 
cify him by acknowledging me as his friend, and by stat- 
ing that my visit was to analyze their mineral waters, and 
to search for natural objects. 
The American tortoises, both land and aquatic, are quite 
numerous, and have as yet been but very imperfectly de- 
scribed. The species which inhabit the streams in the 
immediate vicinity of our town, are probably seven in 
number. The Testudo Pennsylvania, and T. odorata, 
( Kinosternon ,) I have not seen, though I am informed that 
they inhabit our ditches and muddy streams. The Tes- 
tudo Punctata, or Guttata, ( Emys .) is not very common, 
and rarely reaches the length of three inches. The Tes- 
tudo Picta, is also small, and not often seen. Major Le 
Conte observes of this animal, “ that it is always found 
in ponds, and never in streams of running water. Here 
they may be seen in great numbers, basking in the sun, 
on rocks or logs, and plunging instantaneously into the 
water on the approach of any one.” The above remark 
of this accurate and experienced observer of nature, is no 
doubt true in general, but I have seen and captured the 
Punctata and the Picta, on the same spot, in one of our 
clear running streams of water. These two species are 
perhaps the most beautiful of our tortoises; their colours 
and markings are striking and peculiar; in young speci- 
mens, these are the most brilliant and well defined. The 
Testuda Serpentina, {Chelydrci,) inhabits our creek, and 
reaches a very considerable size. It is the most irritable, 
furious, and voracious of reptiles; it snaps at every thing, 
and will not “let go its hold even when the head is sepa- 
rated from the body.” It is often very destructive to our 
young ducks, seizing them, as Mr. Say remarks, by the 
feet, and dragging them under water for the purpose of 
devouring them; in its turn, however, it is eaten by our 
villagers, with great gout, forming, as every one knows, a 
most delicious and nutritive soup. The Testudo Geogra- 
phica, {Emys.) I have not, as yet, been able to detect in 
our creek; but I captured a small one in the Ohio, not far 
from its junction with that river.* The tail was destitute' 
* I take this opportunity to describe a fine shell found last summer near 
the banks of the Ohio, some distance lower down, by Mr. W. T. R. Smith, 
a young limner of great promise, and which lie kindly presented to me. 
Helix Pomum-adami. — Shell, reddish-brown, with a metalliferous hue, 
lighter round the base ; spire, convex ; whorls, eight or nine, with regular 
elevated transverse lines, forming deep grooves between them ; sutures, deep, 
aperture rather narrow ; lip, not reflected ; within the aperture on the outer 
lip, there are two parallel white teeth, the upper one is broad, flattened, and 
