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226 and biographer, Dr. Sprat, that his health suf fered from his change of situation, and he adds —‘‘Besides, 1 can get no money from my tenants, and have my meadows eaten up eve ry night by cattle put in by my neighbors.” Seven years only, did he thus imperfectly —as he describes—enjoy his retreat. In 1667, after an illness of a fortnight, resulting from exposure in one of his fields, he died in the forty-ninth year of his age. His remains were interred with great pomp and display, in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey. Charles the Second bore this testimony to his character, when he received the news of his death, ‘-lie has not left behind him in Enir land a better man.” This compliment would have been of more value had he who uttered it possessed, himself, a lofty mind and an amiable heart; but the flagitious character of that monarch rendered it equivocal testimony —and were there not higher evidence of Cow ley's nobleness and amiability, they might properly be considered apocryphal. Skctcljcs off ife. For the Southern Literary Gazette. MY UNCLE SIMON’S PLANTATION ; —OR SKETCHES OF SOUTHERN LIFE.&C. BY ABRAHAM GOOSEQUILL, ESQ. THE COON-HUNT. l '\ oeat ingenti clamore cithaeron, baygetique caues.” —Tirg. Georg, iii. The echoing hills and chiding hounds invite.” My last two numbers were descriptive of events which happened off the plantation. My readers must not, however, consider me as wandering from my proper bounds; for 1 design giving accounts of many things which do not occur immediately upon my Uncle's plantation. Part of my title is “ Sketches of Southern Life, &c,” which will comprehend almost any thing I choose to write about. and bus much I thought due to consistency, and I now proceed to give an account of a scene which is often enacted upon Uncle Si mon’s premises. Summer is passed and gone, and old Boreas occasionally gives us a blast by way of hint that winter will be upon us presently. In the meantime, he has sent before him a plea sant harbinger, whose surname is Autumn. ISow it is that the pleasures of the chase are again coming in vogue, and 11 echoing hills and chiding hounds invite.” Until the cot ton is all picked out, Reynard may still lie securely in his bed, and give himself no un easiness about dogs; but, in the meantime, the coon and some other game must pay the penalty of the negroes 5 tardiness in harvest ing the snowy staple. A day or two ago. cousin Aristides told me that if I could afford to get up by day-break next morning, we would go out and catch a coon. To this I readily gave my consent, for 1 have always been remarkably fond of hunt ing- So, after we had lain down, and enjoy ed all the pleasures which Morpheus, by the aid of feather-beds and downy pillows, could bestow upon us, for the space of seven or eight hours, we rose manned for the task before fs. Cousin Aristides’ first act was to take down a ram's horn, which hung suspended by a leathern string in the porch, swing it around his neck, and blow as if a second Jericho was under siege. Thereupon, eight eager hounds rushed from their resting pla ces, and came running and howling to their master, as if the walls of the aforesaid besie ged city were about to tumble down at their heels. “All’s ready,” said cousin Aristides; “let's go.” 1 should have mentioned that both myself and my relative, Nimrod, had put on some old clothes, and our worst Loots and hats. The legs of our trowsers were stuffed into those of our boots; for the cunning coon a, afgtß a ¥ ©& SB‘inns* seeks the muddiest place he can find to avoid his pursuers, and we certainly did not want our Sunday rigging besmeared with mud, not even for “that same old coon,” him self. We walked down to the creek, about a half a mile from the house, and my compan ion kept up a continual halloing by way of encouraging the dogs. We had been near the stream for some time, and dusky morn was fast assuming the place of somber night. Still not a single dog had once opened, ex cept a puppy or two, which made an aston ished hare scamper at the top of his speed across a neighboring broom-sedge field. — These were not yet initiated into the myste riesof coon-hunting, having been reared since the last season. No attention was paid them, either by ourselves or by the dogs, which had more experience. We passed on up the creek, and by this time Phoebus peeped over the eastern hills with his merry face, and told us that if we did not soon get a trail, our sport would be up, as raccoons always seek their dens long before he makes his appearance. xYt this, cousin Aristides halloed louder and oftener than he did before, and 1 joined him. There was a small lagoon just ahead of us, and we knew that this was our last chance. If we did not get a trail there, we should have to go home without any game. Soon we heard old Lowder open once in the lagoon just be fore we got to it. But he opened so hoarse ly, and with so little spirit, we knew it was a very cold trail, However, to make the best of a bad prospect, we cheered on the old dog with all our might. He was immediately joined by Ringwood, and we heard them open alternately, as they slowly proceeded from us. We overtook them soon, and tried to get the other dogs to join them ; but the trail was so cold, no others could discover it. There was quite a contest between Lowder and Ringwood. to see which should be the first one to get the trail off. Now, they would smell the whole length of a log, and now swim to a chunk, or stump, or bunch of bulrushes, to find whether the coon had been there. They examined every tree particular ly, to see if the game had gone up any of them. But it all seemed like poor business; for the farther they receded in any direction from the spot where Lowder first struck the trail, the fainter became the scent, and the less frequently either of them opened. Now might be seen the different plans of different canine tacticians. Ringwood circled round and round, each circle he described becoming larger and larger, to see if he could not get the trail off in some other place; while Low der proceeded slowly on, running his nose over every inch of ground, first forwards, then backwards, now to the right, and now to the left, leaving scarcely a hair’s breadth untried. But our two dogs worked in vain. They could not trail, and they could not tree. The coon had been to the lagoon in the fore part of the night to get frogs, &c., and had left soon after; so that by this time his trail had gotten so cold, even old Lowder and Ringwood could not follow it. We concluded that we would go round the head of the lagoon, about a half a mile off, and see if we could not have better luck. No sooner had we reached the head, than our two veteran dogs simultaneously opened, as if the scent of coon was tolerably hot. Some of the other dogs joined in with them, and all who could smell the trail buckled down to it like clever fellow-s. After they had gone on in a galloping trail for nearly a quarter of a mile, the puppies raised their voices in con cert with the other dogs. Like an animated torrent, the pack drove forward, yelling as if old Nick was before them. The hills rever berated with the echo of their cry, and the sound of their voices was hurried along up on the glassy surface of the stream for sever al miles. By and by, after they had run ve ry nearly a mile, they came to a dead halt, and their voices ceased. We soon came up with them, by taking the chord of the arc they had described in running, having thus saved, on our part, a good deal of traveling. When we reached them, they were scattered in all directions, smelling up all the trees, or trying to take up the trail again. We knew, by this, that the coon had taken a tree close by- It was not long before some of the more inexperienced hounds began to bark up a sapling of tolerable size. Ringwood and Lowder went to the tree, and commenced smelling on the roots, and thence up the bo dy, as high as they could reach by standing on their hind-legs. They finally concluded that their companions were barking up the wrong tree, and so left them in their error. As soon as the two old dogs were gone, how ever, the younger ones left also, so much confidence had they in their elders, ft is a fact, notorious to every huntsman, that each dog commands the respect of the pack in pro portion to his ability and veracity. A. pup py, or an untrained dog, which is running here and there, and ever}* where, opening whether he scents the game or not, is never noticed by the pack : while a steady, well | trained dog, which never opens without smelling the trail, is heeded every time he barks, and the other (logs run to him, know ing that they can thereby be put upon the I right track. Such is the force of veracity, | even among brutes. There is one thing to be observed here, in ! regard to the cunning of the coon. Just be fore getting to the hollow tree which con tains his den, he runs up other trees all around his lodging place, and then jumps off, so as to deceive the dogs by making them bark up the wrong tree. Lowder and ! Ringwood were, however, so well acquainted with the tricks of the game which they were pursuing, that the one they were hunting could not deceive them, as he did the young er (logs. These latter barked up several oth er trees besides the one I have already men tioned, but their opinions were not endorsed by the old heroes in whom we had so much confidence. But, by and by, we heard Low der and Ringwood barking at a tree with a great deal of fierceness. They were soon joined by the other six hounds, puppies and all. We knew, from their manner of hark ing, that they saw the game, and hastened on as fast as we could. After emerging from the woods, we came to a marshy place all overgrown with saw-grass and small cane. Looking up a small sapling, about twenty yards in the marsh, where the dogs were barking, we saw a coon. Going up to the tree, cousin Aristides threw a stick at the animal, which caused it to jump out.— The hounds caught it, and soon killed it. This was a female. As soon as the fight was over, Ringwood circled around and soon struck another trail. All the other dogs joined him, and after they had run about a hundred yards up the marsh, they treed up a gum-tree, whose top had been blown off by the wind. Looking up this tree, we saw a coon which, at sight of us, popped down into his hollow. We knew, from the size of this one, that he was a male. The female had also tried to reach this den, but the dogs had pushed her so closely, she was compelled to take the small sapling from which we made her jump, when she was caught by the hounds. They had both been out late. We bio wed the dogs off from the gum. where they had last treed, to go home and eat our breakfast, and afterwards bring John with us to cut the tree down. After we had indulged in some good hot coffee, nice ham and biscuit, which kind aunt Parmela kept upon the hearth for us, and fed the dogs, un cle Simon concluded he would go with us, and enjoy the sport of catching the second coon. He made John saddle his horse for him, while we ate. As soon as all things were ready, uncle mounted his horse, and cousin Aristides and myself preceded him on i loot. John laid a keen-edged axe upon his shoulder, and followed us. The dogs leaped for joy, and ran off as fast as they could g 0 to the tree where we left the coon. When we got there they were barking, and gnaw ing the tree with all their might. John set in with a sturdy arm to cut the gum down. The hills sent back alternately the hayings of the dogs and the sound of the j axe - % by, the tree began to totter, ! and we called the dogs off a little distance to keep it from falling upon them. Presently there was a crash, as the gum fell in a very thick place of saw-grass and small cane.— The dogs were there in an instant, but the coon ran off, and was hidden from their sight by the matted growth which 1 have mention ed. They bulged right through the grass and cane, guided by their unerring nostril The thick vegetation offered but little resis tance to their impetuosity, and, after running a very short distance, we saw the coon bounce up a stump about fifteen or twenty feet high. As good luck would have it, he had run right from the centre of the marsh, which was only about fifty yards wide, out to the bank, where uncle Simon sat upon his horse. When we got to the stump, U p which he had run, there he stood on its top. with back and tail curved, and bristles erect, looking for all the world as cousin Dorothy’s tom-cat would look, if he Avere twice as large as he is. His eyes Hashed with rage, and his tusks, which were fully a half inch long and keen as needles, together with the sharp claws of his fore-feet, showed that he would do battle ere he would die. We determined to make John hold Lowder and Ringwood, for they, being old and expe rienced in killing coons, would have soon put an end to our sport. So John caught these two dogs by the. backs of their necks, and cousin Aristides threw a stick up the stump, at which the coon jumped down. As soon as he touched the ground, the puppies mounted him as if he had been only a hare At this ho reared on his hind-legs, uttered a scream oi indignation, and, placing one paw on each ear of one of the puppies, soused his head into the mud and water, at the same time burying his tusks in the poor fellow's nose, whose yells were now added to the squallings of the coon. This was all done in a second. In another second, he had served the second puppy in the same way. Both of these contented themselves with howling and barking during the remainder of the fight. Nothing could induce them again to take hold. There were now only four dogs to fight, who were served in a way similar to that of the puppies. But they would return to the onset. They snapped, barked and yelled, and the coon screamed and fought like a tiger; while cousin Aristides, uncle\Si mon and myself, hallooed at the top of our voices. It required all of John’s exertions to hold the dogs Lowder and Ringwood. Mud and water splashed on every side, and such a hubub and confusion was raised as is rarely to be heard, except at the death of a coon. The coon kept fighting and retreating, until he got to a small pond, into the middle of which he swam, balanced himself on the wa ter, and bade defiance to his pursuers. The dogs swam to him, and, as each one approach ed, he jumped on their heads, and sunk them under the water. This was often repeated, until the hounds began to grow tired of the sport. It is impossible for any number of dogs to kill a coon in swimming water. But dogs well trained have a way of managing which shall be illustrated in this place hyoid Lowder. Cousin Aristides hallooed to John to let go his dogs. Old Lowder swam direct ly to the coon, caught him about the breast, and turned immediately round to swim to a dry place. In vain did his coonship bite, scratch and squall. The old veteran pursued