Note 50 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 2)

The thick forests of America contain numbers of stags; they do not seem to be a different species from the European stags. An Englishman was possessed of a tame hind. It is observable that though these creatures are very shy when wild in the woods and the cedar swamps, which are very much frequented by them, yet they can be tamed to such a degree, if taken young, that they will come of their own accord to people, and even to strangers: This hind was caught when it was but very little; the colour of the whole body was a dirty reddish brown, the belly and the under side of the tail excepted, which were white; the ears were grey; the head, towards the snout, was very narrow, but upon the whole the creature looked very fine. The hair lay close together, and was quite short; the tail reached almost to the bend of the knee, near which, on the inside of each hind-foot, was a knob or callus. The possessor of the hind said, that he had tamed several stags, by catching them whilst they were very young. It was now big with young ones. It had a little bell hung about its neck, that by walking in the woods, the people might know it to be tame, and take care not to shoot it. It was at liberty to go where it pleased, and to keep it confined would have been a pretty hard task, as it could leap over the highest enclosures. Sometimes it went far into the woods, and frequently staid away a night or two, but afterwards returned home like other cattle. When it went into the woods, it was often accompanied by wild stags, and decoyed them even into the very houses, especially in rutting time, giving its master numerous opportunities of shooting the wild stags, almost at his door. Its scent was excellent, and when it was turned towards the wind, I often saw it rising and looking towards that part, though I did not see any people on the road, but they commonly appeared about an hour after. As soon as the wild stags have the scent of a man, they make off. In winter the man fed the hind with corn and hay; but in summer it went out into the woods and meadows, seeking its own food, eating both grass and other plants: it was now kept in a meadow; it did chiefly eat clover, the leaves of hiccory, of the Andromeda paniculata, and the Geranium maculatum. It was likewise contented with the leaves of the common plantane, or Plantaga, grasses, and several other plants. The possessor of this hind sold stags to people in Philadelphia, who sent them as curiosities to other places. He got twenty-five, thirty, and forty shillings a-piece for them. The food of the wild stags in summer is grass and several plants; but in winter, when they are not to be got, they eat the shoots and young sprigs of branches. I have already mentioned50 that they eat without any danger the spoon-tree, or Kalmia latifolia, which is poison to other animals. In the long and severe winter, which commenced here upon the tenth of December, 1740, and continued to the thirteenth of March, old stile, during the course of which there fell a great quantity of snow, the stags were found dead in the snow, but chiefly higher up the country, where the snow was deeper. Nobody could determine whether their death was the consequence of the great quantity and depth of snow, which hindered their getting out, or whether the frost had been too severe, and of too long duration, or whether they were short of food. The old people likewise relate, that vast numbers of stags came down in the year 1705, when there was a heavy fall of snow, near a yard deep, and that they were afterwards found dead in the woods, in great numbers, because the snow was deeper than they could pass through. Numbers of birds were likewise found dead at that time. In that same winter, a stag came to Matsong into the stables, and ate hay together with the cattle. It was so pinched by hunger, that it grew tame immediately, and did not run away from people. It afterwards continued in the house, as another tame creature. All aged persons asserted, that formerly this country abounded more with stags than it does at present. It was formerly not uncommon to see thirty or forty of them in a flock together. The reason of their decrease is chiefly owing to the increase of population, the destruction of the woods, and the number of people who kill and frighten the stags at present. However, high up in the country, in great forests and desarts, there are yet great numbers of them. Among their enemies is the Lynx of this country, which is the same with the Swedish one51. They climb up the trees, and when the stags pass by, they dart down upon him, get fast hold, bite, and suck the blood, and never give over till they have killed it.