236 HUNTING SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



and whom I would earnestly urge to visit its interior, as 

 it abounds in rare and interesting productions : birds, 

 quadrupeds, and reptiles, as well as molluscous animals, 

 many of which, I am persuaded, have never been de- 

 scribed. 



In the course of one of my rambles, I chanced to 

 meet with a squatter's cabin on the banks of the Cold 

 Water river. In the owner of this hut, like most of 

 those adventurous settlers in the uncultivated tracts of 

 our frontier districts, I found a person well versed in the 

 chase, and acquainted with the habits of some of the 

 larger species of quadrupeds and birds. As h j who is 

 desirous of instruction ought not to disdain listening to 

 any one who has knowledge to communicate, however 

 humble may be his lot, or however limited his talents, 

 I entered the squatter's cabin, and immediately opened 

 a conversation with him respecting the situation of the 

 swamp, and its natural productions. He told me he 

 thought it the very place I ought to visit, spoke of the 

 game which it contained, and pointed to some bear and 

 deer skins, adding that the individuals to which they had 

 belonged formed but a small portion of the number of 

 those animals which he had shot within it. My heart 

 swelled with delight, and on asking if he would accom- 

 pany me through the great morass, and allow me to be- 

 come an inmate of his humble but hospitable mansion, I 

 was gratified to find that he cordially assented to all my 

 proposals. So I immediately unstrapped my drawing 

 materials, laid up my gun, and sat down to partake of 

 the homely but wholesome fare intended for the supper 

 of the squatter, his wife, and his two sons. 



