24 HINTS ON FOREST AND PRAIEIE LIFE. 



SO that they can be marked to almost a yard. In Texas 

 they are so numerous and prolific that, if it were not 

 for the vermin, in English keepers' phrase, the country 

 would be overrun with them. They are often caught in 

 a very wholesale manner by the negroes in traps, called 

 partridge-pens. 



The winter in Texas is as mild as an English April, 

 so that the hunter can always ply his vocation. There 

 are mule-rabbits and smaller hares, grouse, quail, and 

 upon the ponds, ducks, snipes, and widgeon. Few 

 native-born hunters use shot-guns. The rifle is their 

 pet weapon, and they seldom trouble themselves to 

 shoot small game. 



During the spring months of the year the settlers 

 are in the habit of setting the prairies on fire, for the 

 purpose of clearing ojBf the old and coarse grass, that it 

 may be replaced by a sweet young growth. Some 

 States allow this by law, though in the extreme West 

 laws can hardly be said to exist ; at all events, they are 

 seldom carried into execution, and therefore the prairies 

 are frequently set alight, either from accident, or from 

 a wanton sj^irit of caprice, or mischief. 



Not less grand than the forest on fire is the prairie, 

 when seen in a mass of blazing flames. The smoke 

 rolls up heavenward in dense, heavy, black columns, 

 while, beneath, the flames leap and dart in one red line 

 extending for miles. At night the whole horizon 

 appears like the gates of Tophet, and then can be heard 



