USA > Indiana > Pioneer history of Indiana : including stories, incidents, and customs of the early settlers > Part 35
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FEROCIOUS ANIMALS.
THE PANTHER.
The panther stands at the head of ferocious animals which inhabited Indiana. They were in such numbers in all the timbered sections that the Indians regarded them as very dangerous. They would attack a man and did kill many Indians, as well as white persons. They were very destruc- tive to elk and deer and would attack the buffalo. Its usual height was about three feet, its length about six feet, ex- clusive of the tail, which was from two to two and a half feet long. This animal was equipped with a most formidable and sharp set of claws, that it could extend two inches from the end of its toes. Like all the cat tribe, it caught all of its prey by stealing on it unawares. These animals caught most of their food hiding in the trees near a saline lick, and as the elk, deer and buffalo would pass going from or to the lick, it
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would land on its back. The animal, unless it was a small deer, would run for a long distance with the panther on its back before bleeding to death from the lacerations made with its claws. In color it wa's 'tawny to a dark-brown on its back and sides and was of a pale yellow color on its under parts.
They raised their kittens in a large hollow tree or in a cave, from three to six at a birth. It is disputed whether they have more than one set of kittens during the year. DeLome says that he has seen the kittens in the early spring and late fall. After killing a deer or other animal and eating all they wanted, they would drag the carcass to a secluded place, cover it up with grass, brush and leaves and watch it. If any other animal attempted to interfere, it would fight for the carcass to the death. Their hides, when tanned, made good clothing and moccasins.
The panther would not attack a human being as long as the face was toward it, but would stand near, turning its head from side to side as if trying to avoid the gaze, patting its tail cat-like, but the moment the back was turned it would spring upon its victim. When traveling, they went in a long leap as fast as a horse could run, and at short intervals made a whining cry, seemingly not loud, but which could be heard a mile away.
In 1830 in Washington County, Indiana, a dagger trap was set for a small animal. Sometime during the night a panther was nosing around the trap trying to get the bait, when it sprung the trap and the dagger went through its ears into its socket in the trap. The next day the panther was killed about one mile from Sullivan, Indiana with the dagger still fast in its ear.
The Puma of the country west of the Rocky mountains is a little longer in body and heavier than the panther which was known in the central west. The latter was of a darker color and if possible more ferocious and vicious.
THE WOLF.
The wolf is of the canine species and was regarded by the pioneers as a despicable, mean sneaking snarling animal.
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They were very prolific and went in large packs, securing their food from the lesser animals which. they could run down. When a very large pack of wolves had been together, they have been known to surround a buffalo and worry it until almost exhausted by the continual rushes made by the pack from different parts of the circle, until they killed it. Notwithstanding this they were regarded as very cow- ardly and would only attack when in large numbers and had the decided advantage. The first settlers in this country who tried to raise sheep, found it a very difficult proposition. They had to pen them every night or they would have been killed by the wolves which would congregate near the farms upon which the sheep had been placed in pens and keep up a continuous howl for hours at a time.
The grey or timber wolf which was a native of the tim- ber sections of Indiana was about as large as a good sized dog, without possessing any of the redeeming qualities of his brother. On the prairie sections of the State were immense numbers of what were known as prairie wolves. These de- spicable creatures would set up such a noise as soon as night came on, that when near a camp, would drown out all other sounds. They had a kind of tremulo in their voices so that one could make a sound as if a dozen were howling. When the soldiers on Indian campaigns were in the section of the state where these wolves lived, and in camp, the odor of the cooking would gather around their camp hundreds of these animals.
General Scott, of Kentucky, at one time had a camp on one of our prairies. He had his horses picketed out and these wolves .set up such a howl that his horses stampeded, pulling their stake pins and it was some time before all of them were found again.
THE BOB CAT OR WILD CAT.
This animal was very plentiful in all sections of Indiana and was not regarded as dangerous to man as it would not attack unless hemmed in; then it attacked with a fury that no other animal ever had. The wild cat has a body
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about three feet long and a little over two feet high with only a very short tail. The head is short and broad. Its mouth is armed with long and very sharp teeth. Its legs, long for its body, are thick and strong. It is armed with long and sharp claws. This animal has been known to defeat six dogs in a battle, killing two of them and scratch- ing the eyes out of two more of them. It secures food from smaller animals and birds and will carry off small shoats and it is very destructive to all sorts of poultry, chickens, turkeys and geese.
FUR BEARING ANIMALS.
THE BEAVER
The American beaver once dwelt in great numbers in all the rivers, lakes and creeks of North America and in no part of it more than along the many streams and lakes of Indiana. The mound builders in many parts of North America have left monuments to commemorate the beaver, which have stood the test of countless centuries. The Indians who in- habited all parts of the United States have some legend by which their association with this intelligent animal is noted. Bancroft, the historian, said in an article that in cleanliness, thrift and architectural skill the beaver was far superior to the Red Man.
The beaver is an amphibious quadruped which cannot. live more than a short period under water. It is asserted they can live without water all the time if occasionally pro- vided with a chance to bathe. The largest beaver is nearly four feet long and will weigh nearly sixty pounds. It has a round head like the otter only larger, small eyes and short ears. Its teeth are very long and so shaped in its mouth as to be best suited to cut down trees and for cutting the logs of proper length for building or repairing a dam. Its fore legs are not more than four or five inches long. The hind legs are longer. The tail of the beaver seems to have no relation to the rest of the body except the hind feet. The tail is cov-
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ered with skin on which there are scales which resemble a fish and is from ten to twelve inches long and about four inches broad in the middle.
The color of the beaver differs according to the climate in which it is found. Those to the far south are much lighter brown than the ones found in the north, which are almost black. The fur is of two distinct sorts all over the body. The longest is generally about one inch; on the back sometimes it is more than two inches, diminishing in length toward the head and tail. This part of the fur is coarse and of but little value. The under fur is very thick and is really a very fine down, about three-quarters of an inch in length. This is the fur that makes the beaver skin so valuable in market.
The intelligence of this animal in building their dams and constructing their houses and providing their food is wonderful. When they are to choose a place for a new dam, they assemble several hundred, apparently holding a conven- tion. After their deliberations are over, they repair to the place agreed on, always where there is plenty of such timber, needed for the construction of their house, dams, and for their provisions, usually poplar, cottonwood, willow, linden and catalpa, all of these being soft woods. Their houses are always in the water, and when they cannot find a lake or pond, they will supply the deficiency by damming a creek, sometimes good-sized rivers. In this way they raise the water, held by their strong dams to the required depth. They then commence to fell large trees. They cut the trees that grow above the place where they want to build, so they can float them down with the current. From three to five beavers will set about cutting the tree down with their strong, sharp teeth. They select such trees as will fall toward the lake or creek, so as to lessen their labor. After the log is in the water, two or three beaver manage so that it floats to a point where they want to use it. To sink the log into the water, the beaver uses a large amount of mud, carrying it on their tails and piling it on the log until there is a sufficient amount to sink it. When they have it in place and the .
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framework of the dam is completed, they will chinck the opening with rocks, if they can get them-if not, with small pieces of timber and limbs. Then they make a mortar by tramping it with their feet, then plastering the dam all over, using their tails for mortar carriers and trowels until it is strong and water-tight.
In building their houses, after they have the dam com- pleted, they show evidence of great skill. Selecting a place in the water held by the dam, they first make a foundation on the bottom of the dam or lake with logs and poles. Upon this they build their houses, which are circular in shape and oval at the top. There is always enough of the house which stands above any possible overflow of the stream, so that the beaver can have his home always dry and cozy. Each cabin is large enough to hold from six to ten beavers, and built so that they can have easy communication with each others' houses. There are usually quite a number of their houses at each dam. They are so constructed and held together with timber and brush, limbs and rocks, all of which is plastered inside and out as perfectly as the best masons could do it. The entrance to these houses is from below, which they swim to. When these houses are opened they are found to be models of neatness. The floor, which is made with a network of small limbs and twigs, intertwined together and nicely plastered over, is carpeted with dry grass and leaves.
It is said that winter never overtook these intelligent animals unprepared, as their stock of provisions was always securely laid up in their store houses, consisting of small pieces of wood such as limbs and saplings of poplar, willow, asp, and linden. These small pieces were cut an even length and piled so they would retain their moisture. The beaver eats the bark from these sticks and a small portion of the soft wood next to the bark and uses the balance of it for chincking and mending their dams and houses. Volumes could be written about these wonderful animals.
In every part of Indiana where there was water and tim- ber, the beaver was in unusual numbers, and the places where they had dams can be easily traced. About twenty
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years ago the author was having the spread of a creek, which the beavers had dammed, ditched so that the water would follow the channel, and found the entire distance from where the channel stopped to where it was found again, more than a quarter of a mile, to be a continuous set of beaver dams and houses, made of catalpa timbers which were per- fectly sound. The stumps they had cut the trees from were sound, showing the marks of their teeth.
THE OTTER
This animal is aquatic and secures its food from fish. Its body is about three feet in length, from the head to the tail. "The tail is about eighteen or twenty inches long and flat- tened in shape, and is used in swimming. The otter fur is very valuable. It is a brown color, the under part being brighter. These animals are very playful and have slides wherever there is a long sloping bank. They go to the top, spread out their feet and slide head first into the water. When they come up they swim to the shore and are ready for another slide. They have been known to make regular to- boggan slides, selecting a place suitable for the slide at a sloping high bank on the river or lake in which they live if one is to be had; if not they select a suitable place as near their home as possible and make a regular toboggan slide of it. As many as four have been seen at a time coming down a long slope enjoying the fun as much as school boys with their sleds. The otter is easily domesticated and when made tame shows more real attachment for its master than a dog. The Indians living near the lakes had many tame otters and would take them where there was the best fishing ground and have the otter fish for them. It is said that a fish very seldom got away from them, having once been sighted.
THE RACCOON.
This valuable animal was in all sections of the state of Indiana in vast numbers. Their skins are covered with a heavy suit of fur of a gray color, much darker in the winter months than in the summer. The length of the body is
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about twenty-four inches, with a long bushy tail. alternating black and white rings upon it. They are nocturnal in their ยท habits and secure their food from many sources; various sorts of roots that they dig, small animals, frogs and birds, often robbing the nests. They are skillful chicken thieves, rob- bing the hen roost at night. The coon skin in an early day was a legal tender, and paid for many of the comforts of the home, ammunition and needed articles for the early settlers and also for many thousands of acres of land first entered in Indiana.
They were hunted in two ways. One was to track them in the snow and find a tree in which they had a colony. The other, the one resorted to most often by our fathers, was to hunt for them at night with dogs trained for that purpose. The coon would take a tree as soon as the dogs on the trail got close to it. If there was a good moon and ammunition was not scarce, the hunter would locate the coon in the tree, and going to a point where its body was between him and the moon, he would shoot it. Most of the time the tree was cut down and the dog would catch the coon. Many stories can be told about coon hunting. A laughable one is told by Finley in his "Early Footnotes" on a clerical friend of his who, when a young man, was out with a party coon hunting. The dog treed the coon, and as the embryo minister was known to be good at climbing trees, it was decided that he should climb the tree and shake the coon out. Accordingly he ascended the tree, carefully looking for the coon. Finally he located it high up on one of the topmost branches. Pro- ceeding cautiously, he succeeded in reaching the limb just below the one which the coon was on. Raising himself to a standing position, that he might reach the limb, the limb was heard to crack and began to give way. He was fully thirty feet from the ground, and realizing the danger he was in, he cried out to his companions below, "I am falling." Knowing that it would most likely kill him, they called to him to pray. "Pray!" said he, "I haven't time." "But you must pray-if you fall, you will be killed." He commenced repeating the only prayer he knew, "Now I lay me down to
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sleep." He could get no further, but called out at the top of his voice, "Hold the dogs, I'm coming." And he did come with a crash that came near killing him. The dogs, thinking it was the coon, could with difficulty be restrained, from at- tacking the coon hunter.
THE OPOSSUM
The opossum is a small animal about twenty inches long, with a long tail that is entirely bare and rough like the com- mon rat tail. It is very destructive to tame poultry. The females have a sack or pocket in which they carry their young before they are able to run about. If you strike at . one he will lie down on his side and appear as if dead; as soon as your back is turned, jumping up and hurrying away; hence the expression-"playing 'possum." Their tails are used to make their hold secure when they are climbing along the limbs of small trees. The Indians regarded the 'possum as making one of the best dishes they had. The white peo- ple have always used them for food. When dressed they look much like a young pig. When baked with a liberal supply of sweet potatoes it is a dish fit for an epicure. The skin is covered with a fur and long white hair. When the hair is removed it leaves a very nice soft fur, out of which many articles of wearing apparel are made.
THE FOX.
The grey and red fox were two varieties which were very plentiful in the history of early Indiana. There were other varieties on the northern borders of the United States. They are of the canine species and are regarded as the shrewdest of all animals. They are not so tall in proportion to their length as the rest of the canine family. Their usual length is about thirty inches and they are about eighteen inches tall; . having a slim, trim body, slender legs, small roundish head, with a sharp nose, short ears, eyes close together and a long, bushy tail. They burrow in the ground and are nocturnal in their habits. They live on small animals and are the worst of the poultry thieves, carrying off full-grown chickens and geese. . They can kill and carry away a twenty-pound pig.
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These animals have furnished much sport. They will run all day when pursued by a pack of fox hounds. It is known that a large red fox will give a pack of hounds a three days' run. When being pursued they resort to many tricks to lead the dogs from their trail-such as doubling back on their track, then springing upon the top of low bushes where grape vines are matted over them and running as far as the mat extends, then jumping off and running at right angles to their former course. Another device was brought to the au- thor's notice. A red fox in the eastern part of Knox county was, during the hunt, a long way ahead of the dogs. It turned on its trail, ran back to a place that it had chosen, jumped up a leaning log and climbed up for some distance, where it hid among a mat of vines until the dogs and hunters had passed. It then ran down and back on its own trail which the dogs had come over and escaped.
When the water fowls were on the small lakes and ponds which are so numerous in northern and northwestern Indiana, the fox would secure a bunch of large green leaves and vines and so arrange them in its mouth that they would hide its body; then it would slowly swim out to the fowls, letting its body stay low in the water, and when very near them would let the leaves go and sink under the water, catching the duck or goose by the leg, then swim with it to the shore.
Lincoln has related a story, illustrating the fox's cun- ning, which is as follows:
It seems that the lions, tigers and panthers were kill- ing so many animals it was resolved to hold a convention of all species. In that convention it was agreed that the lions, tigers and panthers would abstain from killing all other ani- mals only when such animals were guilty of such crimes as lying, deceitfulness and slander. As the lion and other ani- mals lived by their expertness in catching such animals as they used for food, the conditions of the convention were hard on them, and seemed to hit the lion worse than the others; so he resolved to see if he could not cause some of the animals to violate some of the conditions of the compact. Stationing himself near a watering place, he waited to see
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what animals would come. The first was the innocent, un- suspecting sheep. The lion said, "Good morning, Mr. Sheep." The sheep returned the salutation. The lion said, "Mr. Sheep, I am afraid that I am going to be sick, and as a favor to me I wish you would smell my breath and see what you think ails me." The sheep, glad to accommodate his big neighbor, did so, and said, "Mr. Lion, you are in a very bad way. I never smelled so bad a breath and I think you will have to be very careful of yourself. The Lion said, "I will kill you, Mr. Sheep, for being a liar," which he did. He was soon hungry again and the next to come was a cow. The lion accosted her: "Good morning, Miss Cow, I am mighty glad to see you; I feel very bad and I thought I would ask if you could tell me what is the matter with me by smelling my breath." This she did and said, "Mr. Lion, you are certainly not very badly ailing, for I never in all my life smelled so sweet a breath." "That is all right, Miss Cow, but I will kill you for being a flatterer." The lion was soon waiting again, and the next to come along was the fox. The lion put the same question to him as he had to the others and asked him to smell his breath. The fox replied, "Brother Lion, I do feel greatly flattered by your showing me such distin- guished attention, and it would afford me the very greatest pleasure if I could in the smallest degree add to your comfort. But, Mr. Lion, the fact is I have been running about so much of late to secure food for my family that I have taken a dreadful cold and it is impossible for me to smell anything."
The skins of the foxes are sold the furriers and are made into caps and other articles of wearing apparel. The fox is a very playful animal and very easily domesticated.
THE MINK.
The mink is a long, slender animal, with a long, bushy tail. It has a gland connected with its system where a sub- stance is secreted that has a very disagreeable odor. They secure their food from small animals, birds and all sorts of fowls, to which they are very partial. Their skin is covered with a rich black fur, which makes a very shiny and glossy
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garment, and is very high-priced. There are a number of persons engaged in raising them for the value of their fur. The mink is very prolific and the venture is proving to be a valuable one.
THE WEASEL.
This small animal is native to all parts of Indiana. It is covered with a rich brownish fur. It secures its food from mice, rats and birds. They can kill from twenty to thirty chickens in a night, sucking the blood from them by making a small wound just below the ear. Their one redeeming quality is that they are very destructive to rats.
THE GROUND-HOG.
This animal that so many weather-wise persons have taken their cue from as to the condition of the weather in the early spring, lives in the ground by making burrows in the side of a hill, always slanting upward, that they may shed any water that may accumulate. The animal is from sixteen to eighteen inches long, of a dark greyish color above and a pale reddish color below. It has a thick, round body, a broad, flat head, with no neck apparently, short legs and bushy tail. It lives on vegetables and is especially fond of red clover. It spends the winter in its burrow in a lethargic state, and is said to be wide awake only a very few times from the beginning of the first cold weather in the fall until early spring.
THE MUSK-RAT.
The musk-rat is a native to all parts of Indiana, and is very destructive to any sort of vegetables that grow near its den in the bank of a creek or a pond. This is a very peculiar animal and the only one of its kind. In shape it looks much like the field rat. Its head and body together are about sixteen inches long; its tail ten inches. It is covered with a dark-brown fur. In some of its characteristics it agrees very well with the beaver. It is an aquatic animal and seldom wanders far from the creeks, ponds or lakes. Its skin is in great demand in the European market, and countless thou- sands of them are exported each year from the United States.
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It burrows in the bank for a home near where there is plenty of water and it builds itself a sort of house, lining it with grass and making room in each house for two or three musk- rats.
THE SKUNK.
This animal is of the weasel family, but larger than either the mink or the weasel, and in size about the same as a house cat, but of a much more compact build. In color it is black or brown, with white stripes or streaks along its sides. It has a long, bushy tail, which in traveling is extended the full length, straight up. This animal, like the mink, has an offensive odor about it, many times stronger than any other animal. It has a sack near the root of its tail which con- tains a fluid. When assailed, it will discharge this fluid with great precision at its adversaries, and woe be to a man or dog who receives the full force of the discharge, for the odor is so intolerable it will make one deathly sick. It is a very tame animal, owing to its power of defense. The skins are used by furriers for making many articles of dress.
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