DEER HUNTING. 243 



ther. There is cevtainly no sublimity about them, unless it be 

 the sublimity of the ridiculous ; and I believe that now-a-days 

 few persons worthy of the name of sportsmen honor these tra- 

 vestied battues with their presence. High living by day, high 

 play at night, soft pillows in the morning, with just enough 

 sporting to serve as an excuse, are the great inducements to 

 New- York gunners to visit " the Island," unless it be for Fowl 

 shooting, which is really fine, and a sport worthy of a sportsman, 

 or for the kindred amusement of Trout fishing with the fly, in 

 waters which it is no easy matter to surpass anywhere, either 

 for the excellence of their stocking, or the quahty of their fish. 



For the rest, I can conceive nothing more lugubriously dull 

 than a Long Island Deer-hunt. It is just the thing for a Broad- 

 way dandy, and for nothing on the broad earth beside. 



In Hamilton county, among the fine bright lakes, the pellucid 

 rivers, and the great breezy hills, although the order of the day 

 is still driving, it is a very different affair, leaving much, almost 

 everything indeed, after the Deer is started, to the energies, the 

 tact, and the activity of the hunter. 



He is stationed, in lesd, at the first, by a run-way, where it 

 opsns on the lake, or river — that which the guide deems the 

 best; but when the deep bay of the Staghound, bellowing 

 thi'ough the passes of the mighty mountains, and repeated fifty 

 fold by the sportive echoes, gives note that the game is a-foot, 

 the hunter must shift his place, as the music sweeps onward 

 over rock and through ravine, now bounding, rifle in hand, over 

 stock and stone, with gait swift at once, and stealthy, — now 

 making his light skiff, or yet lighter bark canoe, glance over the 

 clear waters, with strong-pulled sculls, or deftly-managed pad- 

 dles, and owing it to his own speed and skill in avoiding the 

 si^ht or the scent of the hunted quarry, if he gets it within rifle 

 range. 



Again, if it take the water boldly, as it will often do, and swim 

 across from shore to shore, there is a race in view, with all de- 

 pendent on the individual faculties and personal prowess of the 

 sportsman, producing all that consciousness of power, that emu- 



