foresters" profits. 31 



If we wished to drive deer, we generally proceeded to 

 a distant part, where our regular hunting ground ran 

 no risk of being disturbed ; but we seldom indulged in 

 this last-named sport while hunting for a settlement. 

 If no dogs are used, unless in cases of great emergency, 

 and if the hunters are thoroughly up to their business, 

 a tract of forest and prairie can be hunted, day after 

 day, for a very long time, without making the game 



wild. 



Perhaps the reader may be induced to say that our 

 time might have been more profitably employed ; and 

 that may be true. We did not make very much money 

 by our hunting ; but still the expenses were not very 

 great, so that what we did receive was nearly all clear 

 gain. We were not troubled by any landlord; the 

 tax-collector was afraid of losing himself; there were no 

 butcher's bills ; so that all our outlay was for ammu- 

 nition, flour or meal, coffee, sugar, salt, tobacco and 

 whisky. 



Provisions, such as these, are very cheap, sugar 

 being made close at hand, tobacco was grown not far 

 off, and green coffee-berries cost but threepence per 

 pound weight. 



The prices were generally a dollar for a good fat 

 buck's haunch, the same price for a turkey-cock, and 

 half that for a hen-turkey, or a small haunch of doe 

 venison. Grouse, wild ducks, or widgeons, averaged a 

 quarter of a dollar, or about a shilling English money ; 



