The history of Lynn - Lynn Massachusetts Genealogy Project

22 HISTORY or LYNN. [1029.males, it is said, were exquisitely harmonious ; and when heardthrough the shadowy woods, might easily have been mistakenfor the warbhngs of some melodious birds, or the notesof a fine toned instrument.The woods were filled with wild animals, of which the mostnumerous were foxes. ^ There were also wolves, bears,moose, deer, beaver, raccoons, and that most insidious anddeadly foe of human kind, the catamount. This animal hasnever been particularly described, but many stories are relatedof its attacks upon the early settlers. It is one of the numerousvarieties of the cat kind, from three to six feet in length,with short legs, and commonly of a cinnamon colour. It climbstrees, and leaps with surprising agility on the unwary travellerwhom it surprises in the forest. An Indian, in passing throughihe woods one day, heard a rustling in the boughs overhead,and looking up, saw a catamount preparing to spring upon liim.He said he " cry all one soosuck"—that is, like a child—knowingthat if he did not kill the catamount, he must lose_his ownlife. He fired as the animal was in the act of springing, whichmet the ball and fell dead at his feet.The wild pigeons are represented to have been so numerous,that they passed in flocks so large as to " obscure the light,"^and continued flying " for foure or five houres together," tosuch an extent that a person could see neither " beginning norending, length or breadth, of these millions."^ When theyalighted in the woods, they frequently broke down large limbsof the trees with their weight, and the crashing was heard at agreat distance. A single fan:iily has been known to have killedmore than orie hundred dozen in one night, with poles andother weapons ; and they were often taken in such numbers,that they were thrown into piles, and kept to feed the swine.The Indians called the pigeon wuscowhan, a word signifying a-wanderer.. The harbour was frequently covered with wildfowl, so that persons have killed " 50 Duckes at a shot ;" theporpoises pursued their rude gambols along the shore, andthe seal slumbered on the rocks.The light birchen canoes ofthe red men were seen gracefully skimming over the surfaceof the bright blue ocean, which spreads its interminable expansetoward the south ; while the half clad females were beheld,bathing their olive limbs in the lucid flood, or sporting onthe smooth sands of the beach, and gatheringthe spotted eggs,1 Town Records. 2 Dudley. S Wood.