Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Monday, March 3, 1851
A Crocodile Story.-We had some talk the other day with one of the very few survivors of the Egyptian expedition under Sir Ralph Abercromby, who has lived to obtain the Egyptian medal fifty years after it was earned. What a mockery to wait until there were not, perhaps ten alive in the country and then award the metals! However, to our story. When the brigade under Sir David Baird was marching up the eastern bank of the Nile, towards Cairo, numbers of stragglers fell behind, unable from fatigue to keep up with the main body. A rear guard was consequently dispatched to protect the stragglers and keep them together. One of them, a Highlander, however, became so exhausted that his comrades were obliged to leave him to his fate. He had not been long alone when he saw a large crocodile wadding towards him with a very portentous aspect. Poor Donald eyed the monster as it approached him with feelings of intense alarm; and although almost unable to walk, he mustered up his little remaining strength, and abided the onslaught of the enemy. As the unwieldy brute was slewing himself round to seize him, Donald dexterously got astride on it, and kept his seat. He at once drew his bayonet (for he had parted with his musket,) and every time the animal turned round its head to bite him, he picked it severely behind his fore leg, or whatever he could make the steel penetrate. How long the contest continued Donald could not tell, but he thought it an age. When the rear guard reached headquarters the general, on being informed that Donald had been left behind, immediately dispatched a corporal’s guard to bring him in. On coming up to Donald, there he was astride of his Bucephalus, which was by this time nearly exhausted with the wounds inflicted by the bayonet. The musket soon accomplished what the bayonet had begun, and Donald was brought into camp little the worse for his extraordinary encounter, and was ever after known to the regiment as the Crocodile Dragoon.
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Wednesday, August 13, 1851
The Sandwich Islanders regard dogs as great delicacies. A letter from Honolulu, in noticing the preparations for the celebration of the king’s birthday, says-“Some unfortunate dogs are being scalded and scraped by my own residence; on enquiry it appeared that they were destined for the palace.”
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Monday, March 10, 1851
Mr. Pearson’s dog made his way overland from California, to his home in Burlington, Iowa, alone. His master came by steamer to New York.
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Saturday, October 11, 1851
Wild Pigeons have been remarkably numerous in the region of Plattsburg (New York) this season. The roost of the birds is in a forest, some six miles long and two wide, each tree containing from twenty to eighty nests. Companies of pigeon-catchers went out from Vermont, and they, with others, have sent more than one-million eight-hundred-thousand birds to the city markets. Seven-hundred bushels of grain were fed out to them in baiting. Hauls have been made of twelve-hundred at a time. The noise made by the birds at their encampment was so great that persons could not converse five yards apart. They disappeared on the 17th of July, taking their flight over the forests north of Vermont, towards Maine. The flight over Plattsburg continued for several days.
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Friday, October 24, 1851
A dog feast.
This evening, in the Cheyenne’s camp, for the first time, I witnessed the interesting process of killing and preparing a dog for a feast. The victim was a large cur, quite fat. Two squaws lassoed him, and hung him up till he was dead. They then put him on a fire, and roasted off the hair, scraping the skin until it was as clean as a scalded hog. They then dressed it and cut it up, and put it into a large copper kettle, where it was boiled until the bones came out. Having witnessed the process of preparation I could not indulge in the luxury of eating any of it. During the evening and night, there were dog feasts in the camp of the Brulies and Avalahlah bands of the Sioux. They kept up in their villages a dance, drumming, music and whooping the entire night, all of which was distinctly heard in our camp
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Monday, December 1, 1851
A few days ago a Newfoundland dog belonging to a gentleman of New Jersey, seized an infant which was sleeping upon the track of the Morris and Essex Railroad, on the approach of the locomotive, and carried it away of the danger.
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Tuesday, December 2, 1851
Solomon gave a feast in the courtyard of his temple, at which were consumed no less than 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. The feast acquired sixty acres of ground for kitchens, 17,000 cooks, and allowing one pound of meat for each guest, and eighteen inches for each seat, the table extended the whole length of Solomon’s kingdom, from Dan to Beersheba.
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Thursday, January 15, 1852
The Cleveland Herald says that a boy who was recently passing through the woods near Sandusky, met a couple of deer, whose horns were locked in love or war, so closely they could not dissever them, where upon he took a rope, fastened the antlers tight together by trying them, called assistance, and captured them.
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Tuesday, July 1, 1851
Another buffalo Hunt.
A dispatch from Cincinnati of June 24, says-‘The Buffalo Hunt attended by Indians, yesterday; opposite this city’ was attended by 10,000 persons. The buffalo when attacked by Indians and pierced with arrows, showed no disposition to fight, and the crowd, seeing that they were humbugged, became excited, fired at the Indians, killed the buffalo, hauled on the dray and was about carrying him into Wood’s Museum, around which several thousand persons were collected, and were commencing a riot, when the Mayor and a strong posse of police arrived on the ground and arrested ten of the ring leaders. The intention was to mob the Museum, the proprietor being suspected of getting up the humbug. This however, Wood denies.”
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Monday, July 21, 1851
The workmen on the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad, near Beaver, recently found a petrified snake imbedded in solid limestone rock, some 60 feet below the earth’s surface. It’s size was enormous-sixteen feet in length, and in the middle at least four inches in diameter. It is said to be almost as perfect in form and feature as when alive.