40 HIAWATHA AND THE DEER. 



lie huddled together, the snout of one resting on the hind- 

 quarters of another, and the last-comer keeping guard. 



The readers of Longfellow's poem of "Hiawatha" will 

 remember the following spirited passage, which is instinct 

 with life and motion : — 



" Hidden in the alder bushes, 

 There he waited till the deer came, 

 Till he saw two antlers lifted. 

 Saw two eyes look from the thicket, 

 Saw two nostrils point to windward. 

 And a deer came down the pathway 

 Flecked with leafy light and shadow ; 

 And his heart within him fluttered, 

 Trembled like the leaves above him. 

 Like the birch-leaf palpitated. 

 As the deer came down the pathway. 



Then, upon one knee uprising, 

 Hiawatha aimed an arrow ; 

 Scarce a twig moved with his motion, 

 Scarce a leaf was stirred or rustled. 

 But the wary roebuck started. 

 Stamped with all his hoofs together, 

 Listened with one foot uplifted, 

 Leaped as if to meet the arrow ; 

 Ah, the singing, fatal arrow. 

 Like a wasp it buzzed and stung him." 



Notwithstanding the slaughter committed by the white 

 men and the red men, — by the pioneer, the traveller, the 

 hunter, and the trapper, — the plains and woods of America 

 still abound with "game;" and among this game the 

 various members of the Cervidse, or Deer tribe, hold a 

 high place in the sportsman's estimation. In the north 

 we meet with the Moose, which is identical with the 

 European elk, and is the largest of all the tribe ; a noble 

 animal, seven feet in height, with large palmated horns 



