8 HINTS ON FOREST AND PRAIRIE LIFE. 



But the hunter's progress is often barred by im- 

 passable swamps, where vegetation runs riot and 

 drops to decay ; where amongst the tangled ferns, 

 rushes, and long grass, the moccasin snake crawls 

 forth from his den, and hisses its defiance to the in- 

 truder; where pools of stagnant water, covered mth 

 rank weeds, afford board and lodging to the toad ; 



* 



where the mass of vegetation breeds a vapour scarcely 

 less poisonous than the noxious reptiles which it 

 nourishes ; where, on the top of tall, blasted pine 

 trees, vultures sit, with bloated crops and glazed, 

 sleepy eyes, trying to digest their carrion food. 



But let me speak of more pleasant scenes — of a 

 bubbling spring at the foot of a mossy bank, beneath 

 the shade of some ancient tree, where the hunter, 

 as he reposes, can watch the silver thread of water 

 as it winds down the valley, till it loses itself in 

 some larger stream, not poisoned yet by a foul 

 manufactory. 



But I feel that it is impossible to give on paper 

 any adequate idea of the vastness and variety of an 

 American wilderness, — so different from English 

 forest scenery, where woodmen are constantly employed 

 to ' keep the place tidy, ' and withered branches are 

 converted into faggots of fire-wood as soon as they 

 fall. In the forests of Texas all is natural ; the trees 

 are planted by Nature's hand ; they fall from decay 

 or from the effects of a fierce tempest, — and where 



