458 THE ECCENTRIC NATURALIST. 



heaps to be converted into lime. " Lime ! Mr Audubon ; why, they are 

 worth a guinea a piece in any part of Europe." One day, as I was re- 

 turning from a hunt in a cane-brake, he observed that I was wet and 

 spattered with mud, and desired me to shew him the interior of one of 

 these places, which he said he had never visited. 



The Cane, kind reader, formerly grew spontaneously over the greater 

 portions of the State of Kentucky and other Western Districts of our 

 Union, as well as in many farther south. Now, however, cultivation, the 

 introduction of cattle and horses, and other circumstances connected with 

 the progress of civilization, have greatly altered the face of the country, 

 and reduced the cane within comparatively small limits. It attains a 

 height of from twelve to thirty feet, and a diameter of from one to two, 

 and grows in great patches resembling osier-holts, in which occur plants of 

 all sizes. The plants frequently grow so close together, and in course of 

 time become so tangled, as to present an almost impenetrable thicket. A 

 portion of ground thus covered with canes is called a Cane-brake. 



If you picture to yourself one of these cane-brakes growing beneath 

 the gigantic trees that form our western forests, interspersed with vines 

 of many species, and numberless plants of every description, you may 

 conceive how difficult it is for one to make his way thi'ough it, especially 

 after a heavy shower of rain or a fall of sleet, when the traveller, in for- 

 cing his way through, shakes down upon himself such quantities of water, 

 as soon reduce him to a state of the utmost discomfort. The hunters 

 often cut little paths through the thickets with their knives, but the usual 

 mode of passing tlu'ough them is by pushing one''s self backward, and 

 wedging a way between the stems. To follow a bear or a cougar pursued 

 by dogs through these brakes, is a task, the accomplishment of which 

 may be imagined, but of the difficulties and dangers accompanying which 

 I cannot easily give an adequate representation. 



The canes generally grow on the richest soil, and are particularly 

 plentiful along the margins of the great western rivers. Many of our 

 new settlers are fond of forming farms in their immediate vicinity, as the 

 plant is much relished by aU kinds of cattle and horses, which feed upon 

 it at all seasons, and again because these brakes are plentifully stocked 

 with game of various kinds. It sometimes happens that the farmer 

 clears a portion of the brake. This is done by cutting the stems, which 

 are fistular and knotted, like those of other grasses, with a large knife or 

 cutlass. They are afterwards placed in heaps, and when jiartially dried 



