Evening star., 1939-03-18
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.
By Thomas r. Henry.

Little known creatures, elusive deni-
zens of dark caves and high mountain
forests, were found by Smithsonian
Institution collecting party IN a recent
intensive effort to secure complete rep
resentation Of the present-day birds and
mammals of Tennessee for the United
States National Museum.
The report OF their collections has just
been published, supplemented with his
torical references to such animals as the
elk and the bison which long since have
disappeared from this part of the United
States
Altogether there are records of 180
birds and 81 mammals, according to the
lists made up by DR.. Alexander Wetmore.
assistant secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, and DR.. Remington Kellogg,
assistant curator Of mammals, who
studied the specimens obtained by the
collectors. Typical Of mammals who lead
their lives almost unknown to the ma
jority Of human beings is such creature
as the cloudland deer mouse, who live in
the darkness of dense hemlock forests
and rhododendron thickets in high
mountains where the sun rarely pene-
trates.
DR.. Kellogg found some of his most
valuable historical material in the rec
ords of the lost State" of Franklin, set
up in Eastern Tennessee just after the
Revolution, whose currency consisted of
pelts. Specific values were attached to
those of different animals. Taxes and
salaries of State officials were payable in
this currency The records reveal the
former abundance of creatures which
now either have completely disappeared
or become very rare in the Southern
AlleghenieS.
"A good, clean beaver skin" was valued
at shillings. The Assembly fixed the
salary of each county clerk at 300 beaver
skins, the clerk of the House of Commons
received 200, and members of the Assem-
bly, each, beginning January /, 1788.
The Governors salary was fixed at
1000 deer skins and that of the chief
justice at 500. These also were valued at
shillings each and were used for max
ing vests, pants, fringed hunting shirts
and leggings.
Taxes were paid in raccoon and opos-
sum skins. The latter were very plenti-
full and had little value. Some corrupt
tax collectors, it is recorded, used to
make their collections in coon pelts.
Then they would cut the tails off these
and sew them on the OpoSsum skins
which would be deposited in the State
treasury. They would then sell the more
remarketable coonSkins to hat makers.
An otter skin was valued at 6 shillings
and the salary Of the State treasurer was
fixed at 45O such pelts. A gray fox pelt
was valued at only shilling 3 pence.
Other furs appear to have had no fixed
value as currency.
Bison, Dr. Kellogg finds from his search
of the old records, apparently persisted in
Tennessee until about the year 1900 and
early in the 18th century probably were
quite numerous. BY 1920, with settlers
pouring into the region and land being
cleared, they had disappeared completely.
Elk also once were very numerous, he
finds, mot only in the high passes and
narrow valleys Of the mountainous Sec
tions, but along the rivers and creeks in
the southern counties and in the cane
brakes of the Mississippi bottomlands."
The State has a few European wild
boar, descendants of stock of IS cap
tured in the Harz Mountains in 1912 and
released in an inclosure just over the
North Carolina line. They were left
undisturbed for eight years. In 1920
when an attempt was made to hunt
them about 100 broke through the in
closure and escaped into the Cherokee
National Forest. 1t is estimated that
about lis of them are left within an area
OF so square miles.
The State has II varieties of bats,
most of which are rarely seen, the
Smithsonian collecting party found. The
most common OF these is the Southern
pipistrelle, which is found alternating in
caves during the winter and at dusk on
summer evenings can be recognized from
its erratic, butterfylike flight over fields
and clearings in woods. They either COL
lected or obtained records of nine varie-
ties Of squirrels. DR.. Kellogg records Is
varieties Of rats and mice, some Of which
are practically never seen by man.