WILD SCENERY OF THE FOREST. 53 



ocean. In such a place as this, the wild Indian might 

 fancy himself on his own hunting-grounds. Traverse all 

 this desolate tract, and you shall find no dwelling, nor 

 sheep, nor cow, nor horse, nor any thing that can remind 

 you of domestic life; you shall hear no sound but the 

 rushing of the torrent, or the notes of the wild animals, 

 the natural inhabitants ; you shall see only the moor-fowl 

 and the plover flying before you from hillock to hillock, or 

 the eagle soaring sublime with his eye to the sun, or his 

 wings wet with mist. 



" Nothing more shall you see, except the dun tenants of 

 the waste, which we are in search of, and these I hope to 

 fall in with long before we reach Blair. You have hitherto 

 seen nothing but our tame deer, with their palmated 

 branches, cooped up in ornamental parks; and such are 

 picturesque enough ; but when I show you a herd of these 

 magnificent animals, with their pointed and wide-spread- 

 ing antlers, ranging over this vast tract, free as the winds 

 of heaven, I think you will agree with me that there does 

 not exist a more splendid or beautiful animal ; for whether 

 he is picking his scant food on the mountain tops, or wan- 

 dering in solitude through the birch groves, or cooling 

 himself in the streams, he gives grace, character, and unity 

 to every thing around him. How you feel I know not ; 

 but when I first trod these glorious hills, and breathed 

 this pure air, I almost seemed to be entering upon a new 

 state of existence. I felt an ardour and a sense of freedom 

 that made me look back with something like contempt 

 upon the tame and hedgebound country of the South. 

 Perhaps it is impolitic thus to raise your expectations as 

 to the chase ; and, indeed, it is impossible for me to describe 



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