GRIZZLY BEAK-HUNTING. 137 



who hail stra}o<l away from the scenes once necessary 

 for his life, and who loved, like the worn-out soldier, to 

 '• iSght the battles over," in which he was once engaged. 



It may be, and is the province of the sportsman to 

 exaggerate — )>ut the "hunter," surrounded by the mag- 

 nificence and sublimity of an American forest, earning 

 his bread by the hardy adventures of the chase, meets 

 with too much reality to find room for coloring — too 

 much of the sublime and terrible in thii scenes witl» 

 wliicii he is associated to be boastful of himself. While 

 apart from the favorable efi'ects of civilization, he is also 

 separated from its contaminations ; and boasting and 

 exaggeration are settlement weaknesses^ and not the 

 products of the wild woods. 



The hunter, whether Indian or white, presents one 

 of the most extraordinary exhibitions of the singular 

 capacity of the human senses to be improved by cultiva- 

 tion. We arc accustomed to look with surprise upon 

 the instincts of animals and insects. We wonder and 

 admire the sagacity they display, for the purposes of 

 self-preservation — both in attack and defence. The 

 lion, the bear, the beaver, the bee, all betray a species 

 of intelligence, that seems for their particular purposis 

 superior to the wisdom of man ; yet, on examination, 

 it will be found that this is not the case. For all his- 

 tories of the human denizen of the forest show, that the 

 Indian surpasses the brute in sagacity, while the white 

 hunter excels both animal and savage. 



