146 The Winning of the West 



Every true backwoodsman was a hunter. Wild 

 turkeys were plentiful. The pigeons at times filled 

 the woods with clouds that hid the sun and broke 

 down the branches on their roosting grounds as if 

 a whirlwind had passed. The black and gray squir- 

 rels swarmed, devastating the cornfields, and at 

 times gathering in immense companies and migrat- 

 ing across mountain and river. The hunters' ordi- 

 nary game was the deer, and after that the bear ; the 

 elk was already growing uncommon. No form of 

 labor is harder than the chase, and none is so fas- 

 cinating or so excellent as a training-school for 

 war. The successful still-hunter of necessity pos- 

 sessed skill in hiding and in creeping noiselessly 

 upon the wary quarry, as well as in imitating the 

 notes and calls of the different beasts and birds; 

 skill in the use of the rifle and in throwing the tom- 

 ahawk he already had; and he perforce acquired 

 keenness of eye, thorough acquaintance with wood- 

 craft, and the power of standing the severest strains 

 of fatigue, hardship, and exposure. He lived out in 

 the woods for many months with no food but meat, 

 and no shelter whatever, unless he made a lean-to of 

 brush or crawled into a hollow sycamore. 



Such training stood the frontier folk in good stead 

 when they were pitted against the Indians ; without 

 it they could not even have held their own, and the 

 white advance would have been absolutely checked. 

 Our frontiers were pushed westward by the war- 

 like skill and adventurous personal prowess of the 

 individual settlers; regular armies by themselves 



