Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-25
CONNECTICUT COONS.
FAMOUS COON DOGS OF THE
NOTED DEVILS HOP YARD.n

NOTED DEVILS HOP YARD.n
| When the Season Sets in-What the Coon
Fattens On and How He Is Brought
Down Out Of the Tree--Coon Suppers.
Fighting the Dogs.
The coon season sets in in Connecticut
about the middle Of September and continues
until cold weather, but the farmers do not
make business Of the sport until after
the corn has been husked and other
autumn chores have been done. The coon is
| ripest and juiciest in the period between Oct
Is and Nov. Is, and, being stuffed full Of
Indian corn, fall poultry, chestnuts and
acorns, he is less nimble; he cannot run so
far after the dogs once get on his trail His
wits are not so sharp either, and usually as
soon as the first hue and cry Of lot of stall
wart country lads, with couple of excited
dogs, is borne to him on the still, crisp au-
tunn cir, he waddles away into the heart Of
the most convenient swamp, pulls his corpu-
lent body to the top of an evergreen or black
oak tree and waits for the chase II the night
is starlit it is an easy thing to do to pick him
Off his lofty perch with charge of No. 2
shot driven with three -and-a-half drachIns
OF powder behind his foreshoulder. A fat
coon that has been shot in this way usually
sits still and thinks a moment, until he has
fully made up his mind that his burden is
more than he can BEAR then he topples con-
tentedly over and comes tumbling down
among the tree limbs with the punky thud Of
decayed pumpkin rolling out of cart He
strikes the ground, large round ball of fur
and instantly four arms tipped with sharp
hooks shoot out just in time to catch two
dogs that have been excitedly waiting for
this act in the entertainment The coon has
now become buzz saw, and each timo that
he revolves dog loses several pieces Of his
hide or a bit of his ear or lip. Over and over
the three animals spin, dogs snarling and
swapping, coon biting and striking and splut-
tering, and the revolutions do not cease until
the motive power gives out and the coon is a
limp bag of fat in the jaws Of his fierce foes
After the game has been killed one Of tho
hunters throws it over bis shoulders and the
dogs are driven off into the woods TO look up
new trail.
THE BEST COON REGION.
The best coon country i'll Connecticut is the
rocky, wooded, picturesque region between
the Connecticut and Thames rivers 1t is the
kind Of land that a coon revels and grows
fat in. There are rich meadows and arabic
hillsides where farmers can raise fine corn
for coons; there are almost impenetrable
swamps, to which coons can retire in times of
stress; there are deep, gloomy valleys, walled
In by frowning, chaotic masses of rocks, that
are pierced by winding chambers and cavi
ties and there are long forests Of big trees,
with hole in every fifth tree, into which
coon can slip in the early morning after
night of it in the corn lot or at a farmers
poultry yard.
About fourteen miles west of Norwich, and
six or seven from the Connecticut river, is a
deep valley Of singular formation that is re-
markable for wild and fantastic scenery. 1t
Is known in half the state as the ''Devils Hop
Yard" and it is the center of tract OF
country of legendary renown. Here coons
and witches have been hunted from an i'm
memorial time. At the north a roaring trout
stream leaps through a jagged throat in the
hills over powders and lodges sixty feet or
more, into the valley, which expands on
either hand until it is half mile in width in
Its broadest part, and rushes through mar
row gap between vertical precipices three
miles below at the southern limit of the hop
yard. On each side the valley is hemmed in
by perpendicular almost seamless walls of
block granite; the mountains are begirt by a
wide wilderness, with here and there farm
amid the woods, and, as far as the business of
men is concerned, it is practically out of the
world. The Devils Hop Yard, SO called be-
cause the devil used to shop" in it with Had
dam witches before the world became too
dull and commonplace for romantic gentle
man in black with horns on his head to take
any interest in it, is, together with the en-
vironing country, the paradise Of coon hunt
ers and the nursery of typical coon dogs
Nowhere else are the coon hunter and the
coon dog to be met with in their full and com
plete glory. II
1t requires an extraordinary dog for hunt
ing coons, for no other animal leaves SO deli
cate and feeting a scent. 1t is up to all the
tricks of the fox, too, in battling pursuit. If
there is any process for breeding successful
coon dog it is not known A setter or a
pointer may do artistic work in his own field
that no other dog can rival, and foxhound
may be superb in his line but all may be
practically worthless for coon hunting. A
good coon dog may have cross from all
other hunting dogs, and there may be a
broad stripe of mongrel in his make up, yet
no one can say just what it is that makes
him great in his profession. There are
scores of coon dogs, but a first rate one is
rare, and his value priceless.
THE TYPICAL COON DOG.
A good coon dog is born, not made. He is
the Scotchman, or Yankee, of the canine
species-one trait he must possess above all