THE FIRE ISLANDS. 87 



they did years ago. \Yhen winter sets in, and game 

 becomes scarce, many of them go south, in a sloop of 

 their own, or hire a passage in some vessel, and shoot 

 on the Chesapeake Bay, about Charleston and Mo- 

 bile, supplying the southern market with game. 



But, before speaking further of this peculiar class 

 of people, I will give a sort of diary of my visit. We 

 were on a visit to a friend on the south shore, and 

 late in the afternoon drove up to the century-old edi- 

 fice, that stood facing the ocean with its time-worn 

 front. This old family mansion is the relic of another 

 one which stood here when New York was a colony, 

 and the owner of it governor under England. It is 

 overgrown with vines, and standing as it does in full 

 sight of the sea, presents a most venerable appear- 

 ance. 



^ After dinner, we rode over to the old Indian tavern, 

 ^' Connetiquoit" (I think that is the right spelling), 

 where gentlemen from New York stop in their hunt- 

 ing expeditions in this region. Two deer had been 

 killed during the day, and one of them lay stark and 

 stiff before the door as we drove up. Poor fellow ! 

 the fleet limbs that were winged with speed in the 

 morning, would never bound through the forest again. 



The rain beginning to descend in torrents, we 

 turned our horses' heads homewards, and there, by a 

 blazing wood fire, such as you find in the new settle- 

 ments alone, composed ourselves for the evening. It 

 was Saturday night, and a gloomy night it was. The 

 heavens were black as Erebus, while a strong south- 

 east wind came from its long track on the Atlantic, 



