66 THE GROUSE OF MAPLE RUN. 



the tale farther on. At the foot of the fall, and for nearly 

 a mile in length — by a quarter to ha^f a mile in breadth 

 — the ground is nearly level and covered with a rank growth 

 of alders, growing in bunches, a few feet apart, between 

 them the grass is green the whole year round. This lovely 

 spot is appropriately called "Woodcock's Delight." What 

 thrilling emotions fill my heart as, in fancy, I gaze upon its 

 many mazy aisles. It seems but yesterday that I, a happy 

 youth, was rambling through these silent shades ; what de- 

 licious, glorious hours were these, what blessed communings 

 with the God of Nature, prized by me far more than the 

 famous bags of woodcock and grouse that I nearly always ob- 

 tain here. The scene remains the same ; but, alas ! my 

 beautiful friend of the querulous whistle is gone, I fear for- 

 ever, slain by the ruthless hand of him who should protect, 

 instead of destroy. Slain by him who, disguised as a sports- 

 niau, steals in mid-summer upon the callow brood, and mur- 

 ders, ay ! murders every one ; murders the enfeebled and 

 often sick mother-bird and her unfledged chicks. May the 

 curse of all true sportsmen rest upon you ! The wrath of the 

 hunter's God already abideth with you, for he suffers not his 

 beautiful charges to roam in the places you have desecrated 

 and laid waste. Excuse this digression, as my heart is 

 broken with the utter desolation that abounds. Down a 

 gradual descent of a few yards, covered with a dense growth 

 of hazel, below the beautiful spot that I have just 

 described, we come to a similar piecs of ground of some 

 twenty acres in extent, that is fl >wed in winter and 

 spring, to furnish motive power for a rickety old saw- 

 mill. There are no trees nor brush, except a fringe of wil- 

 lows a few yards in width entirely around the edge of the 

 now dry pond. Below the mill a rocky gorge, grown 

 up with hemlock, leads us down a descent for a hundred 

 yards or more, when we come to a level open meadow, 

 bordered upon one side by a splendid grove of magnificent 

 white oats that covers full fifty acres. Across the meadows 

 and two hundred yards away there is a tangled thicket of 

 scrub-oak, overgrown with briers. At the lower side of 



