INTRODUCTION. 



OUR name, "WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS," must 

 tell for itself, in a great measure, for surely it has abundant 

 significance of its own. " Wild Scenes and Wild Hunters of 

 the World" certainly seems a rather comprehensive title for 

 such space as we have here. 



It is to be remembered, however, that all things are 

 comparative ; and that as I had to begin somewhere, it had 

 as well have been with taking the Flood for granted, in our 

 "Wild Scenes," and accepting Nebuchadnezzar as having 

 "gone to grass," among our "Wild Hunters !" This being 

 acknowledged, I may be permitted to say, that, I have chosen 

 rather to look upon the Wild Scenes and Wild Hunters of the 

 World from the starting-point of my own life, and within the 

 sphere of my own and cotemporary experience. 



Beginning with the dawn of sensation in the infant, I have 

 endeavored to trace the passions of the Hunter-Naturalist, 

 through their gradual development, up to the stern and 

 strong individualities of such men as AUDUBON, WILSON, 

 BOONE, etc. 



The portraits I have given of these men on wood, may 

 be relied upon as accurate ; while in my verbal sketches 

 especially in that of the illustrious Audubon, I have endea- 

 vored to present the Hunter-Naturalist in plain, unvarnished 

 guise, amidst Wild Scenes of the Primitive Nature he lived 

 in and so loved. 



The beautiful, the grotesque, the perilous and strange 



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