82 HUNTING SPORTS OP THE WEST. 



the high waterproof boots, which had faithfully held out 

 to the last, people would have thought me more like a 

 scarecrow than a human being ; my first visit was to a 

 barber. 



I had heard too much boasting and bragging about 

 New Orleans, not to be disappointed in my expecta- 

 tions. I found it by no means so splendidly or so taste- 

 fully built as was asserted, and as I walked along the 

 narrow streets my thoughts wandered to the far more 

 agreeable Cincinnati. The only handsome building in 

 New Orleans, and one without parallel, is the St. 

 Charles' Hotel, which certainly is very magnificent. 



It is no wonder that the air of New Orleans should be 

 generally so unhealthy, and in autumn, quite pestilen- 

 tial ; for the town is built in a complete swamp, and re- 

 quired to be protected by a. dam, from being submerged 

 by the river. It certainly was never intended by nature 

 for the abode of man ; at most, it is fitted for alligators, 

 frogs and mosquitoes. It is the churchyard of the Uni- 

 ted States. 



HUNTING IN ARKANSAS, 



Mr. Gerstaecker, in the course of his wanderings, 

 made the acquaintance of another man, as fond of hunt- 

 ing as himself, to whom he gives the name of Slowtrap. 

 We suspect that this, as well as all the other names he 

 gives to real personages, is invented for the occasion. 



