UPLAND SHOOTING. 53 



son, he shall be deemed guilty of the offence and suffer the 

 penalty. But it is provided that no defendant shall be convicted 

 unless the action shall be brought within tbree months after the 

 violation of the law." 



" • Tbe country selected by these exquisite birds requires a more 

 parlicular description. You already understand it to be the 

 midland and interior district of the island. The soil of this 

 island is, generally speaking, a sandy or gravelly loam. In the 

 parts less adapted to tillage, it is more of an unmixed sand. 

 This is so much the case, that the shore of the beaches beaten 

 by the ocean affords a material from which glass has been pre- 

 pared. Silicious grains and particles predominate in the region 

 chosen by the Heath-Hens or Grouse ; and here there are no 

 rocks, and very few stones of any kind. This sandy tract ap- 

 pears to be a dereliction of the ocean, but is nevertheless not 

 doomed to total sterility. Many thousand acres have been re- 

 claimed from the wild state and rendered very productive to 

 man ; and within the towns frequented by these birds, there are 

 numerous inhabitants, and among them some of our most 

 wealthy farmers. But within the same limits there are also 

 tracts of great extent, where men have no settlements, and others 

 where the population is spare and scanty. These are, however, 

 hy no means naked deserts ; they are, on the contrary, covered 

 with trees, shrubs and smaller plants. The trees are mostly 

 pitch-pine, of inferior size, and white-oaks of a small growth. 

 They are of a (quality very fit for burning. Thousands of cords 

 of both sorts of fire-wood are annually exported from these 

 barrens. Vast quantities are occasionally destroyed by the fires 

 which, through carelessness or accident, spread far and wide 

 through the woods. The city of New York will probably for 

 ages derive fuel from these grounds. The land, after being well 

 cleared, yields to the cultivator poor crops. tFnless, therefore, 

 he can help it by manure, the best disposition is to let it grow 

 up to forest again. 



" ' Experience has proved that in a term of forty or fifty years, 

 the new growth of timber will be fit for the axe. Hence it may 



