208 Walks in New England 



bellion of the public, from the small boy up to 

 the predatory stroller or Sunday sportsman. Nuts 

 at least are ferae naturae, even if apples and fish 

 must be protected. This feeling is not so well 

 known in other countries, and perhaps in this we 

 New Englanders are the true heirs of our fore 

 fathers, who in all the deeds they received from 

 the Indians of their pleasant lands, conserved to 

 the red men the privileges of gathering nuts and 

 taking fish. It is very interesting to read those 

 deeds of two and a half centuries ago, with this 

 invariable proviso. The chestnut was important 

 to the Indian, so important to him that the region 

 of Mettawampe and Pocomtuck was known and 

 described in the deeds the Dedham pioneers took 

 as &quot; the Chestnut country/ But the privileges 

 of nutting and fishing do not seem very large when 

 one reads the petty barter of strings of wampum 

 and other small goods that went with those privi 

 leges to make an even trade for the fair Connecti 

 cut valley and its noble forests and meadows. 



Besides the nuts and the squirrels, there are 

 quantities of deerberries and berries of the wood 

 bine, and skurrying grouse ; the crows caw as 

 wisely as ever, getting ready to depart, and there 

 are still in sheltered glades small asters flourish 

 ing with great bravery, and even a very occasional 

 golden-rod. The ferns are not all withered, but 



