THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS; WILDERNESS HUNTERS AND 

 WILDERNESS GAME. 



M 



ANIFOLD are the shapes taken by the American 

 wilderness. In the east, from the Atlantic coast 

 to the Mississippi valley, lies a land of mag- 

 nificent hardwood forest. In endless variety and beauty, 

 the trees cover the ground, save only where they have 

 been cleared away by man, or where towards the west the 

 expanse of the forest is broken by fertile prairies. To- 

 wards the north, this region of hardwood trees merges 

 insensibly into the southern extension of the great sub- 

 arctic forest ; here the silver stems of birches gleam 

 against the sombre background of coniferous evergreens. 

 In the southeast again, by the hot, oozy coasts of the 

 South Atlantic and the Gulf, the forest becomes semi- 

 tropical ; palms wave their feathery fronds, and the tepid 

 swamps teem with reptile life. 



