Herald Of The Valley

Squirrels.--A letter from Chillicothe, gives the following account of the damage sustained by those little animals. The quantity of which almost exceeds belief: "as we passed through the country, from Dayton to Zanesville, it is impossible to describe the havoc and destruction made by the grey and black squirrels. Whole fields of corn from 5 to 10 acres, are said to be wholly destroyed--not an ear left During a squirrel hunt of about a week, in the neighbouring towns about Columbus, the first part of this month, nearly 20,000 were killed. The exact number, I think, was 19,625. Hundreds were seen every day swimming the Great Miami, Mad river, Scioto, and other streams. Children, from 8 to 10 years of age, would wade into the shallow water, before the squirrels reached the shore, and kill them with sticks. Many of them are fat and fine eating--many families almost live upon them. We saw many little boys, and some men, with from ten to thirty or forty on their backs They seem to be almost as destructive as the locusts formerly were in Egypt. They have never before been known so numerous in this section of the country. It is supposed they swim to find mast, as the nuts are scarce in this quarter, and then attack the corn fields. They will, probably, occasion a scarcity in many places."

N. Y. Int.