180 THE AMERICAN FALL SEASON. 



"It is brilliant autumn time, the most brilliant time of all, 

 When the gorgeous woods are gleaming, ere the leaves begin 



to fall, 

 When the maple boughs are crimson, and the hickory shines- 



like gold, 

 When the noons are sultry hot, and the nights are frosty cold. 



When the country has no green, but the sword grass by 



the rill, 



And the willows in the valley, and the pine upon the hill, 

 When the pippin leaves the bough, and the sumach's fruit 



is red, 

 And the quail is piping loud, from the buckwheat where 



he fed. 



When the sky is blue as steel, and the river clear as glass ; 

 When the mist is on the mountain, and the network on the 



grass. 

 When the harvests all are housed, and the farmer's work 



is done, 

 And the woodland is resounding with the spaniels and the 



gun." * 



"It would be hard (says an American sporting author) 

 for a man to spend a holiday more pleasantly, and benefi- 

 cially, than in the Canadian woods. Hunting leads him into 

 beautiful scenery: his method of life induces contemplation 

 of Nature, and tends to wholesome thoughts. He can read 

 out of the great book of Nature, and find books in running 

 brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything." f 



"I think no lover of Nature (says another high American 

 authority on such matters) can be an unkindly or, at the 

 bottom, an evil-minded, or bad man." 



* Autumn, or The Fall, in the United States, by W. Cullen Bryant, 

 y Sport with Rod and Gun in American Woods and Waters, by 



Alfred M. Meyer, 1884, Vol. i., p. 205. 



Frank Forrester's Field Sports of the United States and British 



North America, New York 1882, Vol. i., p. 264. 



