of owls. An early and correct use of this imitative
faculty was considered as an indication that its possessor would become,
in due time, a good hunter and valiant warrior. Throwing the tomahawk
was another boyish sport, in which many acquired considerable skill.
The tomahawk, with its handle of a certain length, will make a given
number of turns in a given distance. Say in five steps, it will strike
with the edge, the handle downward; at the distance of seven and a half,
it will strike with the edge, the handle upward, and so on. A little
experience enabled the boy to measure the distance with his eye, when
walking through the woods, and strike a tree with his tomahawk in any
way he chose.

"The athletic sports of running, jumping, and wrestling, were the
pastimes of boys, in common with the men.

"A well-grown boy, at the age of twelve or thirteen years, was furnished
with a small rifle and shot-pouch. He then became a fort-soldier, and
had his port hole assigned him. Hunting squirrels, turkeys, and
raccoons, soon made him expert in the use of his gun.

"Dancing was the principal amusement of our young people of both sexes.
Their dances, to be sure, were of the simplest form. Three and
four-handed reels and jigs. Country dances, cotillions, and minuets,
were unknown. I remember to have seen, once or twice, a dance which was
called 'The Irish Trot,' but I have long since forgotten its figure."

"Shooting at marks was a common diversion among the men, when their
stock of ammunition would allow it; this, however, was far from being
always the case. The present mode of shooting off-hand was not then in
practice. This mode was not considered as any trial of the value of a
gun, nor indeed, as much of a test of the skill of a marksman. Their
shooting was from a rest, and at as great a distance as the length and
weight of the barrel of the gun would throw a ball on a horizontal
level. Such was their regard to accuracy, in those sportive trials of
their rifles, and of their own skill in the use of them, that they often
put moss, or some other soft substance on the log or stump from which
they shot, for fear of having the bullet thrown from the mark, by the
spring of the barrel. When the rifle was held to the side of a tree for
a rest, it was pressed against it as lightly as possible, for the same
reason.

"Rifles of former times were different from those of modern date; few
of them carried more than forty five bullets to