196 AMEEICAN GAME. 



ties along the low and level shores of the Delaware, in 

 the wide, open meadows, where there is not a bush or 

 brake to be seen for miles ; but more generally in low, 

 swampy woods, particularly in maple woods, which have 

 an undergrowth of alder ; along the margin of- oozy 

 streamlets, creeping through moist meadows, among 

 willow thickets ; and in wet pastures trampled by cattle, 

 and set here and there with little brakes, which afford 

 them shade and shelter during the heat of the day. 



Of the latter description is the ground, once so famous 

 for its summer cock-shooting, known as " the drowned 

 lands," in Orange County, New York, extending for 

 miles and miles along the margins of the "Wallkill and 

 its tributaries, the Black Creek, the Quaker Creek, and 

 the beautiful Wawayanda. Many a day of glorious 

 sport have I had on those sweet level meadows, enjoyed 

 with friends long since dispersed and scattered, some 

 dead, untimely, some in far distant lands, some false- 

 and some forgetful, and thou, true-hearted, honest, merry- 

 brave, Tom Draw ; thou whilom king of hosts and 

 emperor of sportsmen, thou, saddest fate of all, smitten, 

 or ere thy prime was passed away, by the most fearful 

 visitation that awaits mankind the awful doom of 

 blindness ! never again shall I draw trigger on those 

 once .loved levels the railroad now thunders and 

 whistles close beside them, and every man and boy and 

 fool, now sports his fowling-piece ; and not a woodcock 

 on the meadows but, after running the gauntlet of a 



