STAGS OF AMERICA. 223 



America has also her native stags. Those of 

 Canada reside in deep forests, and on rocky moun- 

 tains ; they are not unfrequent about the Kaatskill, 

 that dismembered branch of the Appalachian moun- 

 tains, which whoever has made a voyage upon the 

 Hudson must remember to have seen westward of 

 the river, rising to a noble height above the sur- 

 rounding country. Beautiful is that mountain 

 branch, and the naturalist who wishes to impress 

 upon his readers the haunts of different tribes and 

 families of either plants or animals, may be allowed 

 to repeat " that every change of season, every change 

 of weather, indeed every hour of the day, produces 

 some alteration in the hues and forms of those mag- 

 nificent mountains, and that the fleet animals which 

 often glance as if in transport up their rocky sides, 

 seem to partake of all these beautiful hues, and 

 shifting tints, till a looker-on would almost fancy 

 that they were creatures 



Which in the colours of the rainbow live. 



When the weather is fair and settled, the Kaatskill s 

 are clothed in varying hues of blue and purple, and 

 print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; 

 but sometimes when the rest of the landscape is 

 cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapours 

 about their summits, which, in the last rays of 

 the setting sun, glow and light up like a crown of 

 glory/' 



Wapiti are found among less romantic scenes, in 

 the wild savannas of the interior, and on the utmost 

 western limits of North America beyond the Rocky 

 Mountains. The Virginian, of the Mazamine group, 



