58 HUNTING SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



dinner. Shall I ever have the pleasure of seeing that 

 good, that generous man again ? 



At Mauch Chunk, where we both spent the night, Mr. 

 White, the civil engineer, visited me, and looked at the 

 drawings which I had made in the Great Pine Forest. 

 The news he gave me of my sons, then in Kentucky, 

 made me still more anxious to move in their direction, 

 and, long before day-break, I shook hands with the 

 good man of the forest, and found myself moving towards 

 the capital of Pennsylvania, having, as my sole compa- 

 nion, a sharp frosty breeze. Left to my thoughts, I felt 

 amazed that such a place as the Great Pine Forest 

 should be so little known to the Philadelphians, scarcely 

 any of whom could direct me towards it. How much is 

 it to be regretted, thought I, that the many young gen- 

 tlemen who are there, so much at a loss how to employ 

 their leisure days, should not visit these wild retreats, 

 valuable as they are to the student of nature ! How 

 differently would they feel, if, instead of spending weeks 

 in smoothing a useless bow, and walking out in full 

 dress, intent on displaying the make of their legs, to 

 some rendezvous where they may enjoy their wines, 

 they were to occupy themselves in contemplating the 

 rich profusion which nature has poured around them, or 

 even in procuring some desired specimen for their Peale's 

 Museum^ once so valuable and so finely arrranged ! But 

 alas ! no : they are none of them aware of the richness 

 of the Great Pine Swamp, nor are they likely to share 

 the hospitality to be found there. 



Night came on, as I was thinking of such things, and I 

 was turned out of the coach into the streets of the fair city, 



