THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS ; WILDERNESS 



HUNTERS AND WILDERNESS GAME, 



MANIFOLD are the shapes taken by the 

 American wilderness. In the east, 

 from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi 

 valley, lies a land of magnificent hardwood 

 forest. In endless variety and beauty, the 

 trees cover the ground, save only where they 

 have been cleared away by man, or where to- 

 wards the west the expanse of the forest is 

 broken by fertile prairies. Towards the north, 

 this region of hardwood trees merges insen- 

 sibly into the southern extension of the great 

 sub-arctic forest ; here the silver stems of 

 birches gleam against the sombre background 

 of coniferous evergreens. In the southeast 

 again, by the hot, oozy coasts of the South 

 Atlantic and the Gulf, the forest becomes 

 semi-tropical ; palms wave their feathery 

 fronds, and tlie tepid swamps teem with 

 reptile life. 



Some distance beyond the Mississippi, 



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