THE HUNTING GROUNDS, ETC. 201 



tiger in his lair, tracked the mighty elephant to liis 

 haunt in the pathless forest, and there despoiled 

 him of his trophies, or pursued the watchful ibex 

 from crag to crag, over precipices, chasms, and 

 ledges of rock which men dared not look down 

 in their cooler moments ! Many a hand I then 

 clasped has become cold, many a voice I loved to 

 listen to is hushed for ever ; he witli whom I have 

 often scoured the plain and struggled for the spear 

 after the mighty gray boar, fell a shattered wreck 

 before my eyes in the van of the fight that murky 

 morn when " the Six Hundred " charged. There 

 are times when the past comes before me with sadly 

 painful distinctness, and my heart yearns to return 

 once more to that land where I have passed the 

 happiest years of my life, and to revisit those scenes 

 which are engraven in my memory in strong and 

 ineffaceable colours, although I know that my 

 merry companions are gone, and that their places 

 are occupied by strangers. Who among us have 

 not some sunny spots in their existence, some 

 remembrance of happier days gone by which they 

 love to look back upon with pleasure, however 

 bright future prospects may appear? Almost all 

 of us have some fondly-cherished souvenir or trophy 

 upon which we love to gaze and think of the past, 

 until the soul-stirring scenes of " auld lang syne " 

 again come vividly to mind ; and although we 

 feel that they may never come again, we look back 

 Avith pleasure upon the time when sunshine illumined 



