PEEFACE 



I AM aware that for the most part the title of my 

 book is an allegory rather than an actual description ; 

 but readers who have followed me heretofore, I trust, 

 will not be puzzled or misled in the present case by 

 any want of literalness in the matter of the title. If 

 the name carries with it a suggestion of the leild and 

 deleojable-iH-aatHse, of the fjee and ungamgred-haa- 

 vests which the wilderngsg everywhere affords to the 

 observing eye and eax^ it will prove sufl&oiently ex- 

 plicit for my purpose. 



EsOPHS-ON-HuDSOIf, N. T. 



