Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 183 



State. These are well beaten tracts, leading generally from the 

 prairies in the interior of the state, to the margins of the large 

 rivers ; shewing the course of their migrations as they changed 

 their pastures periodically, from tlie low marshy alluvium to 

 the dry upland plains. In the heat of summer they would be 

 driven from the latter by the prairie flies ; in the autumn they 

 would be expelled from the former by the mosquitoes ; in the 

 spring the grass of the plains would afford abundant pasturage, 

 while the herds could enjoy the warmth of the sun, and snuff 

 the breeze that sweeps so freely over them ; in the winter, the 

 rich cane on the river banks, which is an evergreen, would fur- 

 nish food, — while the low grounds, thickly covered with brush 

 and forest, would afford protection from the bleak winds. I 

 know few subjects more interesting than the migration of wild 

 animals, connecting, as it does, the singular display of brute 

 instinct, with a wonderful exhibition of the various supplies 

 which nature has provided for the support of animal life, under 

 an endless variety of circumstances. These paths are narrow, 

 and remarkably direct, shewing that the animals travelled in 

 single file through the woods, and pursued the most direct 

 course to their places of destination. Deer are more abun- 

 dant than at the first settlement of the country. They increase 

 to a certain extent, with the population. The reason of this 

 appears to be, that they find protection in the neighbourhood of 

 man, from the beasts of prey that assail them in the wilderness, 

 and from whose attacks, their young particularly can with dif- 

 ficulty escape. They suffer most from the wolves, who hunt 

 in packs like hounds, and who seldom give up the chase until a 

 deer is taken. We have often sat, on a moonlight summer 

 night, at the door of a log-cabin on one of our prairies, and 

 heard the wolves in full chace of a deer, yelling very nearly in 

 the same manner as a pack of hounds. Sometimes the cry would 

 be heard at a great distance over the plain ; then it would die 

 away, and again be distinguished at a nearer point, and in an- 

 other direction ; — now the full cry would burst upon us from a 

 neighbouring thicket, and we would almost hear the sobs of the 

 exhausted deer ; — and again it would be born away, and lost in 

 the distance. We have passed nearly whole nights in listening to 

 such sounds ; and once we saw a deer dash through the yard, 



