THE AMERICAN DEER. 227 



worthless fish with spear and torch, till they have disap- 

 peared from their most favorite rivers in the British 

 Provinces, are all forms of this same wanton, wicked, I 

 had well nigh said fiendish spirit, which is really a char- 

 acteristic, as I have observed, of the white settler of 

 every part of America. 



It is an absurdity to say that the spread of civilization 

 and culture has destroyed the game, for it is a well- 

 known fact that game of all sorts increases in the very 

 same ratio in which cultivation increases, if left unmo- 

 lested in their seasons of reproduction, nesting, spawn- 

 ing, or tending their helpless young, so long as a suffi- 

 ciency of woodland is left to afford them shelter. 



In Scotland, the Ked Deer, which are strictly pre- 

 served, so far as the prohibition to kill them out of 

 season goes, but neither fed, tended, nor herded, are and 

 have been for years rapidly on the increase ; and it 

 would probably be within the mark to say that there are 

 at this instant fifty times as many Red Deer in the small 

 space to the northward of the Highland line, than in all 

 the States between Maine and the Delaware. In the 

 eastern and northern parts of Maine, they are still plen- 

 tiful despite the sedulous efforts of the lumber-men to 

 annihilate the race, and the occasional devastation, of the 

 wolves. In the northern parts of Vermont, Massachu- 

 setts, and Connecticut, a few are still to be found, though 

 they are but as individuals compared to the vast herds 

 which were wont to roam those green glades and wild 



