ANIMALS OF THE PEIMITIVE FOKEST. 



EUROPEAN travellers in this country frequently al- 

 lude to the American forest as remarkable for its soli- 

 tude and deficiency of animal life. Captain Hardy 

 remarks that a foreigner is struck with surprise, when 

 rambling through the bush, at the scarcity of birds, rab- 

 bits, and hares, and is astonished when in the deepest 

 recesses of the wild country he sees but little increase of 

 their numbers. When paddling his canoe through lake 

 and river, he will startle but few pairs of exceedingly 

 timid waterfowl where in Europe they swarm in multi- 

 tudes. This scarcity of animals, I would remark, is not 

 peculiar to the American wilderness. The same fact has 

 been observed in extensive forests both in Europe and 

 Asia ; and in proportion as the traveller penetrates into 

 their interiors he finds a smaller number of animals of 

 almost every species. Birds, insects, and quadrupeds 

 will multiply, like human beings, in a certain ratio with 

 the progress of agriculture, so long as there remains a 

 sufficiency of wild wood to afford them a refuge and a 

 home. They use the forest chiefly for shelter, and the 

 open grounds for forage ; the woods are their house, the 

 meadows their farm. 



I had an opportunity for observing these facts very 

 early in life, when making a pedestrian tour through sev- 

 eral of the States. I commenced my journey in autumn, 

 and being alone, I was led to take note of many things 

 which, had any one accompanied me, would have escaped 

 my observation. After passing a few weeks of the winter 



