...  When the young are four weeks old, they begin from time to time to relax their hold on the teats, and may now be seen with their heads occasionally out of the pouch.  A week later, and they venture to steal occasionally from their snug retreat in the pouch, and are often seen on the mother’s back, securing themselves by entwining their tails around hers.  In this situation she moves from place to place in search of food, carrying her whole family along with her, to which she is much attached, and in whose defence she exhibits a considerable degree of courage, growling at any intruder, and ready to use her teeth with great severity on man or dog.  In travelling, it is amusing to see this large family moving about.  Some of the young, nearly the size of rats, have their tails entwined around the legs of the mother, and some around her neck,—­thus they are dragged along.  They have a mild and innocent look, and are sleek, and in fine condition, and this is the only age in which the word pretty can be applied to the Opossum.  At this period, the mother in giving sustenance to so large a family, becomes thin, and is reduced to one-half of her previous weight.  The whole family of young remain with her about two months, and continue in the vicinity till autumn.  In the meantime, a second, and often a third brood, is produced, and thus two or more broods of different ages may be seen, sometimes with the mother, and at other times not far off.

...  Hunting the Opossum is a very favorite amusement among domestics and field laborers on our Southern plantations, of lads broke loose from school in the holidays, and even of gentlemen, who are sometimes more fond of this sport than of the less profitable and more dangerous and fatiguing one of hunting the gray fox by moonlight.  Although we have never participated in an Opossum hunt, yet we have observed that it afforded much amusement to the sable group that in the majority of instances make up the hunting party, and we have on two or three occasions been the silent and gratified observers of the preparations that were going on, the anticipations indulged in, and the excitement apparent around us.

[Footnote 66:  A clergyman of the Lutheran church, for many years a citizen of Charleston, South Carolina, out originally from New York; eminent for his attainments and writings in natural history and science.]

* * * * *

=_J.  A. Lapham.[67]_=

From “Wisconsin, its Geography,” &c.

=_263._= THE SMALLER LAKES.

BESIDES these immense lakes, Wisconsin abounds in those of smaller size, scattered profusely over her whole surface.  They are from one to twenty or thirty miles in extent.  Many of them are the most beautiful that can be imagined—­the water deep, and of crystal purity and clearness, surrounded by sloping hills and promontories, covered with scattered groves and clumps of trees.  Some are of a more