44 A SPORTSMAN'S EDEN. 



I believe half of us want shaking up and sending 

 out to these new lands which are our beautiful 

 birthright. If it was not that we feared our 

 friends would find the cause of our emigration 

 in home failure, how many of us would have 

 been off long ago to the land of promise ! You 

 must come with us another year to this world of 

 giants ; look for yourself on these last desolate 

 fastnesses of Nature assailed by the coming of 

 man, where, though we no longer build our tower 

 of Babel to the sky, we drive our steam-horses 

 to the mountain's top ; see it as I see it now 

 again in memory, snow on the ground, mist in 

 the night air, through which, from the boulder- 

 strewn mountain-side, rise tall stiff pines and 

 dark funereal hemlocks. Silence reigns, and the 

 bear and wild big-eyed mountain beast are alone 

 in the forest and the night. 



But the moonbeams fall on other tracks than 

 the bear's in the snow. Straight as a bird's 

 flight runs the narrow trail, straight from east 

 to west it runs, and the moonlight glistens on 

 the iron rails. Anon a wild shriek wakes the 

 echoes, weird and long drawn and full of agony, 

 wilder than the wolf's howl, more weird and shrill 

 than scream of panther or redskin on the war- 

 path. Through the mist a vast bulk approaches, 

 like the body of some great serpent. A beast of 



