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6 HINTS ON FOEEST AND PRAIEIE LIFE. 



out the guidance of some tolerably experienced 

 hunter, who knows a little of the country and 

 of woodcraft, it would not be advisable for a 

 novice to venture many miles away from the 

 haunts of men. In all probability he would 

 be lost in the forest; and a man who has only 

 seen forests, as they are called, in England, can 

 form little idea of the extent and appearance of 

 an American wilderness. Even the Hampshire New 

 Forest, large in extent and diversified in appearance 

 as it may seem to the eyes of a city-bred man, is 

 but 'a patch' upon the woods of the Southern 

 States of America. In some parts, the trees, the 

 undergrowth, and huge weeds are so matted together 

 with briars and vines, that the hunter is literally 

 compelled to hew a passage through them for hun- 

 dreds of yards ; while in other parts the trees 

 stand as regularly, as far apart, as well trained, 

 apparently, as in any English park, and as free from 

 weeds and bushes. Sometimes, again, there are low 

 flats the soil of which is as bare as a turnpike-road 

 or a brick-field, while close by,- and without any per- 

 ceptible difference in the soil, is a tall growth of 

 palmetto, sedge, and coarse grass. Further on may 

 be seen a genuine cane-brake, where the reeds are 

 of all sizes, from a crow-quill to a man's leg, and 

 in height from three inches to thirty feet. 



Cedar swamps are almost as impenetrable as the 



