VERY ANCIENT ANIMALS.
If you boys never went on a “possum hunt” you have missed a good deal of fun. I really cannot tell which enjoys this hunt the most, men, or boys, or dogs. I think we can guess pretty well which enjoys it least—the opossum. If he gets safely off, though, as he does very often, I have no doubt he enjoys thinking over the chase, and laughs to himself at the way he outwitted dogs and men; for, of course, he would put the dogs first, as being of the greater importance in his eyes.
ANTEDILUVIAN OPOSSUM.
ANTEDILUVIAN OPOSSUM.
ANTEDILUVIAN OPOSSUM.
Moonlight nights are the times to hunt opossums. Where these animals go in the day-time I am sure I don’t know, but they roll themselvesup in a ball, and sleep soundly somewhere, entirely out of the way of everybody. But, at night, they are awake and active, and look up their food.
And then it is that we look them up for food; and for the fun of the hunt. More for the fun, I am afraid, than the food; for we get plenty to eat without going after wild animals; whereas the poor opossum looks for his food because he is really hungry.
We start off, on some fine moonlight night, a party of men and boys. We are in high spirits, and laugh and talk, and have a good time. The dogs are in high spirits too, and run and frisk gaily about. But when we approach the woods we grow quiet and begin to look around expectantly. The dogs understand perfectly what business we are upon, and know that we rely upon them to “tree” the game. So they trot soberly on before us, turning to the right or left as their scent leads them.
Presently they come upon an opossum. The animal starts off on a fast run. Then follows a mad stampede of dogs, boys and men. No need now to keep quiet. We crash through bushes and briers. Finally the opossum, seeing that the dogs are gaining upon him, takes refuge in a tree. Up he goes, like a flash, to the very topmost branches, curls his tail and legs around a limb, tucks his head under the fur of his breast, hangs limp, and pretends to be dead.
He thinks now he is safe, but we know we have him sure. For we have axes with us, and we cut down the tree. The opossum makes no effort to get away while the noise of cutting and the shaking of the tree is going on. And when the tree comes down, Mr. “Possum” is ours.
His flesh tastes like young pig, only more tender and delicate.
But, you will say, this picture is not like our opossums. It does not seem very much like one at first sight, but, on looking closer, you will see several points of resemblance. Our opossum carries its youngin a pouch sometimes, and sometimes on its back, and this one, you see, has its three cunning little young ones on its back, with their dear little tails curled lovingly around their mother’s big tail. It has a long prehensile tail, and long flexible feet, so that it can fasten itself to the branches of trees just as ours do. Its fur is pretty much the same. In some respects it is not like ours.
LABYRINTHODON.
LABYRINTHODON.
LABYRINTHODON.
There are no opossums now just like this one. This species lived before the flood; and is, therefore, antediluvian. The animal in the picture was never hunted by men and dogs, because neither men nor dogs existed in his days. I think it should make us feel a little ashamed, when we are chasing opossums, to think that their ancestors had possession of the world before ours.
If men had lived in those days they would have had some queer game. How would you like to hunt a Labyrinthodon?
This remarkable beast lived about the same time as the antediluvian opossum. Not a very agreeable acquaintance to meet face to face. A glance at his teeth would be sufficient to make one’s hair stand on end. How awful he must have looked with his mouth open! I think he would have made but two mouthfuls of the Cardiff giant if he had had a bite at him before he turned into stone.
ANOPLOTHERIUM.
ANOPLOTHERIUM.
ANOPLOTHERIUM.
Do you notice the strange way his teeth are placed, working in and out of each other? This suggests a labyrinth, and hence his name, Labyrinthodon.
You may not recognise him as a toad, but such he was, and was as big as an ox.
So the toad in the fable, which, you remember, attempted to swell himself to the size of an ox, and came to grief thereby, was only trying to make himself such as his forefathers had been.
The opossum was about the best-looking animal on the earth in those days. The rest were nearly all frightful monsters. There wasthe Ichthyosaurus, a great fish-lizard, thirty feet long, and ten times more dreadful than the present crocodiles. Then there was the Plesiosaurus, which had the body and feet of a turtle, only many times larger, a short stumpy tail, and a neck like a serpent, thirty feet long. And the Pterodactyls, like huge bats, with birds’ heads, and very long bills.
After this race of animals died off there appeared upon the earth a better-looking set. But these, too, all died long before the deluge, and we have none of them now.
One of these, the Anoplotherium, is supposed to have been something like our otter, but it was much larger; and I don’t think, myself from the pictures we have of him, that the likeness is very strong.