AMERICAN FORESTS. 7 



canes. The trees are, perhaps, not quite so close 

 together, but many of them lie on the ground ; and 

 then broken branches, concealed in a dense growth 

 of rank grass, are ever ready, like so many iron 

 spikes, to inflict wounds upon the intruder. On 

 higher ground the wild peach-bush growls abundantly, 

 and so thickly together that their tops shut out the 

 light of heaven, and thus check all the undergrowth, 

 though they spring to a sufficient height to allow the 

 deer-stalker or still-hunter to exercise his calling 

 with comparative freedom. In other thickets all the 

 varied shrubs of America, hickory, dog-wood, thorn, 

 grow close together, and present a most formidable 

 array of sharp spikes. 



Often, while wandering in the depths of the wilder- 

 ness, the hunter will come upon some large, deep 

 lake, whose placid waters will, in winter-time, reflect 

 the floating form of thousands of wild fowl, and 

 where (I am speaking only of the more southern 

 of the United States, in which King Frost has no 

 dominion) huge lilies float upon the mirror-like sur- 

 face of the blue water. There, too, the wild beasts 

 come to drink, — deer, hogs, panthers, and bears, — while 

 wolves and wild cats hide in the thickets by the 

 bank to seize the more weak and timid denizens of 

 the wild, — themselves frequently becoming the prey 

 of some alligator which lies like a huge log on the 

 shore till food of some kind comes within his reach. 



