104) Mr Audubon ow Hunting the Cougar or 



the owner of this hut, like most of those adventurous settlers in 

 the uncultivated tracts of our frontier districts, I found a per- 

 son well versed in the chase, and acquainted with the habits of 

 some of the larger species of quadrupeds and birds. As he 

 who is desirous of instruction ought not to disdain listening to 

 any one who has knowledge to communicate, however humble 

 may be his lot, or however limited his talents, I entered the 

 squatter's cabin, and immediately opened a conversation with 

 him respecting the situation of the swamp, and its natural pro- 

 ductions. He told me he thought it the very place I ought to 

 visit, spoke of the game which it contained, and pointed to some 

 bear and deer skins, adding, that the individuals to which they 

 had belonged formed but a small portion of the number of those 

 animals which he had shot within it. My heart swelled with de- 

 light ; and on asking if he would accompany me through the 

 great morass, and allow me to becomean inmate of his humble but 

 hospitable mansion, I was gratified to find that he cordially as- 

 sented to all my proposals. So I immediately unstrapped my 

 drawing materials, laid up my gun, and sat down to partake of 

 the homely but wholesome fare of the supper intended for the 

 squatter, his wife, and his two sons. 



The quietness of the evening seemed in perfect accordance 

 with the gentle demeanour of the family. The wife and chil- 

 dren, I more than once thought, seemed to look upon me as a 

 strange sort of person, going about, as I told them I was, in 

 search of birds and plants ; and were I here to relate the many 

 questions which they put to me in return for those which I ad- 

 dressed to them, the catalogue would occupy several pages. The 

 husband, a native of Connecticut, had heard of the existence of 

 such men as myself, both in our own country and abroad, and 

 seemed greatly pleased to have me under his roof. Supper 

 over, I asked my kind host what had induced him to remove 

 to this wild and solitary spot : " The people are grow- 

 ing too numerous now to thrive in New England," was his 

 answer. I thought of the state of some parts in Europe, and 

 calculating the denseness^ of their population compared with that 

 of New England, exclaimed to myself, " How much more dif- 

 ficult must it be for men to thrive in those populous countries!" 

 The conversation then changed, and the squatter, his sons, and 



