The Keeper's Tree. 229 



The useless destruction of any animal must be deprecated by all 5 

 but if I want a specimen, either for preserving or eating, I feel no 

 scruple in killing it. I don't know that ever I kill a quadruped, 

 bird, fish, or insect wantonly j but the man who wishes to preserve 

 his game, has an undoubted right to destroy any quadruped or bird 

 which is destructive to that game. Every true naturalist must 

 reverence the memory and envy the feelings of the late Mr. 

 Watertonj and were I a rich man, and possessed the opportunities that 

 he did, I would follow his footsteps to the shadow. But if all were 

 to do this, the chain of nature would be totally destroyed. If the 

 stronger animals were all allowed to roam over the face of the world 

 unmolested, the weaker would soon be swept away ; and, on the 

 other hand, unless the latter were kept down, the world would 

 soon become uninhabitable. It is all very well for the sentimentalist 

 to tell us that we have no right to take away a life which we cannot 

 restore. This sounds well in theory, but it will not do" in practice, 

 for even the most careless observer cannot open a page in the great 

 book of nature without seeing that one universal system of destruc- 

 tion, is hourly carried on, from the lowest to the highest of those 

 creatures who form the brightest pictures in that great book. I 

 cannot exemplify my subject better than by referring the reader to 

 a little woodcut which forms the frontispiece of a small book, The 

 Boy Hunters, by Captain Mayne Reid. It is entitled, "The 

 Chain of Destruction," and consists of seven groups. In the first 

 the humming-bird is diving into a flower-bell, behind which the 

 jaws of death are waiting to receive the unconscious bird in the 

 shape of a huge tarantula spider. In the next the tarantula falls a 

 prey to the cameleon, which, in its turn, is destroyed by a scorpion 

 lizard. No sooner is this act in the drama played out, than the 

 lizard is attacked by a snake 5 this is carried high in air by a 

 swallow-tailed kite, when man, the lord of all, steps in, and, with 

 his rifle, forms the last link in the "chain of destruction." I have 

 looked at this picture times and often, and many a train of sugges- 

 tive thought has been awakened in my mind by the contemplation 

 of that little woodcut. 



