X INTRODUCTION. 



chase as the noblest of all pastimes, and it is for such as they that I 

 translate this volume. 



Brave hearts and true hunters, ye who scorn a snare and a battery 

 as you would scorn a dishonest act, ye who love the associations and 

 simple communings of the hunter's life, ye with whom I have hunted 

 in the wild rice swamps of the Great Lakes, or on the limitless prairies, 

 by " the plashy brink of weedy lakes " of Florida, or through the 

 hushed pine forests of the north ; ye who have shared with me your 

 bed and loaf, whether you were the owner of broad lands, or like 

 Mohammed-ben-Oumbark of our story, the possessor of nothing but 

 your gun and your hunting knife, in either case alike simple in heart, 

 and true in purpose, it is for you that I have translated the work I read 

 by the laughing Seine. A labor of love in remembrance of past 

 pleasures and future hopes. 



And if the stories it contains can fill with profit an idle hour, or win 

 a kindlier regard for a noble sport, the translator's end is attained. 



New Yoke Citt, May 15W, 1856. 



