|
The
sports and means of recreation were not so numerous and
varied among the early settlers as at present, but they
were more enjoyable and invigorating than now. Hunters
nowadays would only be too glad to be able to find and
enjoy their favorable opportunity for hunting and
fishing, and even travel many miles, counting it rare
pleasure to spend a few weeks on the watercourses and
wild prairies, in hunt and chase and fishing frolics.
There were a good many excellent hunters here at an
early day, who enjoyed the sport as well as any can at
the present day. Wild animals of almost every species
known in the wilds of the West were found in great
abundance. The prairies and woods and streams and
various bodies of water were all thickly inhabited
before the white man came, and for some time afterward.
Although the Indians slew many of them, yet the natural
law prevailed here as well as elsewhere “ wild men and
wild beast thrive together.”
Serpents
were to be found in such large numbers, and of such
immense size, that some stories told by the early
settlers’ would be incredible were it not for the
large array of concurrent testimony, which is to be had
from the most authentic sources. Deer, turkeys, ducks,
geese, squirrels, and various other kinds of choice game
were plentiful, and to be had at the expense of killing
only. The fur animals were abundant; such as the otter,
beaver, mink, muskrat, raccoon, panther, fox, wolf,
wild-cat and bear. An old resident of the county told us
that, in 1809, while he was traveling a distance of six
miles he saw as many as 73 deer, in herds of from six to
ten.
|
