208 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



scious of the pleasure of successfully following an innocent 

 pursuit. 



We remained under the hedge till after two o'clock, eat- 

 ing, chatting, and smoking, our irrepressible driver relating, 

 in the most facetious manner, several most amusing anec- 

 dotes of his previous career ; but, as the western sun com- 

 menced to elongate its shadows, and the afternoon breeze 

 to cool the atmosphere, a start was agreed upon, and with 

 one accord each rose and shouldered his gun, intent on do- 

 ing good shooting and farther swelling the capacity of our 

 already distended game-bags. The fresh brace of dogs 

 were uncoupled, and, amidst the discordant notes and 

 piteous whining of our discarded morning favorites, we 

 started for the beat. 



The ground we were about to hunt exactly resembled in 

 appearance and vegetation what we had traversed in the 

 morning, and our anticipations of sport, from former expe- 

 rience, were up to the boiling-point. However, we must 

 have walked quite an hour before either obtained a shot, 

 although the slut ran up two birds, for which she got a 

 severe rating. In prairie-chicken shooting I have frequent- 

 ly observed, and on this occasion it was a corroboration of 

 the fact, that during the heat of midday, or immediately 

 afterward, pinnated grouse are seldom or never to be found 

 near cultivation ; why, I can not say, but they always ap- 

 pear in an unaccountable manner to have transferred them- 

 selves to the uninterrupted prairie. 



Our lengthened tramp had now brought us to ground 

 more irregular, with vegetation more rank, and sparsely 

 sprinkled with dwarf osier and willow, the surface being 

 damp, and occasionally intersected with rivulets. Our 

 spirits were all becoming depressed from our want of suc- 

 cess, and even a new beat had been proposed, and was on 

 the eve of being accepted, when both dogs stood, not ten 



