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it must be considered as a sport, and as one of a nigh 

 and noble order. To these advantages again are to be 

 added the wild and glorious haunts of nature into which 

 it leads our vagrant footsteps the springs, fitted to be 

 the baths of brighter nymphs than any of those who 

 trod immortal, Dryads or Oreads of Delia's train, by 

 which we eat our frugal meal, and with which we qualify 

 our temperate cups the high and liberal mountain-tops, 

 visited *by a clearer and more lustrous sunshine, fanned 

 by a purer and more exhilarating air, than any known to 

 the sleek citizen, to which we climb, led by the fierce 

 excitement of pursuit ; and then the ruddy watch-fire 

 silently blazing in the depths of the mysterious wilder- 

 ness before the bark-roofed shanty, before the hemlock 

 bed, which shelter and console us after the long tramp 

 and the hurried chase the awakening to the cries of the 

 early birds, in the fresh gray of the awakening dawn, 

 the delicious bath in the clear basin of the mountain- 

 torrent, the woodman's morning meal of trout or venison, 

 cooked by the glowing embers, and eaten with no better 

 condiments than appetite and exercise and health may 

 furnish all these all these are the delights which add 

 so inspiriting a charm to the North Country still-hunt, 

 and half tempt the dwellers of pent cities to abandon 

 the culture, the luxury, the companionship, and the civ- 

 ilization of gentlemen, for the more congenial toils and 

 more inspiriting delights of the woodman's life. 



