8 INTRODUCTION. 



diminislied freshness and vigor, their early love 

 for manly exercises and field sports. Each article, 

 it was urged, should stand alone by itself, having 

 its own framework of time and character, and 

 representing a single experience. The favorable re- 

 ception the articles thus published received, and the 

 cordial communications from total strangers which 

 they elicited, together with a strong, ever-present 

 desire on my part to encourage manly exercise in 

 the open air, and familiarity with Nature in her 

 wildest and grandest aspects, persuaded me into 

 concurrence with the suggestion. The composi- 

 tion of these articles has furnished me, amid grave 

 and arduous labors, with mental recreation, from 

 time to time, almost equal to that which I enjoyed 

 when passing through the experiences which they 

 are intended to describe. 



In the hope that what I have written may con- 

 tribute to the end suggested, and prove a source 

 of pleasure to many who, like myself, were " born 

 of hunter's breed and blood," and who, pent up in 

 narrow offices and narrower studies, weary of the 

 city's din, long for a breath of mountain air and 

 the free life by field and flood, I subscribe myself 

 their friend and brother. 



