Or The Larger Red Squirrel Or Chickaree, Sometimes
Called The Hudson Bay Squirrel (_Scriurus Hudsonius_), Gave
Warning Of Our Approach
By that peculiar alarum of his, like the
winding up of some strong clock, in the top of a pine-
Tree, and
dodged behind its stem, or leaped from tree to tree with such
caution and adroitness, as if much depended on the fidelity of
his scout, running along the white-pine boughs sometimes twenty
rods by our side, with such speed, and by such unerring routes,
as if it were some well-worn familiar path to him; and presently,
when we have passed, he returns to his work of cutting off the
pine-cones, and letting them fall to the ground.
We passed Cromwell's Falls, the first we met with on this river,
this forenoon, by means of locks, without using our wheels.
These falls are the Nesenkeag of the Indians. Great Nesenkeag
Stream comes in on the right just above, and Little Nesenkeag
some distance below, both in Litchfield. We read in the
Gazetteer, under the head of Merrimack, that "The first house in
this town was erected on the margin of the river [soon after
1665] for a house of traffic with the Indians. For some time one
Cromwell carried on a lucrative trade with them, weighing their
furs with his foot, till, enraged at his supposed or real
deception, they formed the resolution to murder him. This
intention being communicated to Cromwell, he buried his wealth
and made his escape.
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