I Mean Towards And Near The Sea.
Some Deer On These Mountains Afford The Occidental Bezoar,
Not Coming From A Goat, As Some Report.
What sort of Beast affords
the oriental Bezoar, I know not.
The Tallow of the Harts
make incomparable Candles. Their Horns and Hides are of the same Value,
as others of their kind.
{Fallow-Deer.}
Fallow-Deer in Carolina, are taller and longer-legg'd, than in Europe;
but neither run so fast, nor are so well haunch'd. Their Singles are
much longer, and their Horns stand forward, as the others incline backward;
neither do they beam, or bear their Antlers, as the English Deer do.
Towards the Salts, they are not generally so fat and good Meat,
as on the Hills. I have known some kill'd on the Salts in January,
that have had abundance of Bots in their Throat, which keep them very poor.
As the Summer approaches, these Bots come out, and turn into
the finest Butterfly imaginable, being very large, and having black, white,
and yellow Stripes. Deer-Skins are one of the best Commodities
Carolina affords, to ship off for England, provided they be large.
{Fox Squirrel.}
Of Squirrels we have four Sorts. The first is the Fox-Squirrel,
so call'd, because of his large Size, which is the Bigness of a Rabbet
of two or three Months old. His Colour is commonly gray;
yet I have seen several pied ones, and some reddish, and black;
his chiefest Haunts are in the Piny Land, where the Almond-Pine grows.
There he provides his Winter-Store; they being a Nut
that never fails of bearing. He may be made tame, and is very good Meat,
when killed.
{Small gray Squirrel.}
The next sort of Squirrel is much of the Nature of the English,
only differing in Colour. Their Food is Nuts (of all sorts
the Country affords) and Acorns. They eat well; and, like the Bear,
are never found with young.
{Flying-Squirrel.}
This Squirrel is gray, as well as the others. He is the least of the Three.
His Food is much the same with the small gray Squirrels. He has not Wings,
as Birds or Bats have, there being a fine thin Skin cover'd with Hair,
as the rest of the parts are. This is from the Fore-Feet to the Hinder-Feet,
which is extended and holds so much Air, as buoys him up,
from one Tree to another, that are greater distances asunder,
than other Squirrels can reach by jumping or springing. He is made very tame,
is an Enemy to a Cornfield, (as all Squirrels are) and eats only
the germinating Eye of that Grain, which is very sweet.
{Ground Squirrel.}
Ground Squirrels are so call'd, because they never delight
in running up Trees, and leaping from Tree to Tree. They are
the smallest of all Squirrels. Their Tail is neither so long not bushy;
but flattish. They are of a reddish Colour, and striped down each Side
with black Rows, which make them very beautiful.
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