198 LIFE OP AUDUBON. 



present you with a full account of the habits of our deer, were 

 it not my intention to lay before you, at some future period, in 

 the form of a distinct work, the observations which I have made 

 on the various quadrupeds of our extensive territories. 



"We shall suppose that we are now about to follow the 

 true hunter, as the still hunter is also called, through the 

 interior of the tangled woods, across morasses, ravines, and 

 such places, where the game may prove more or less plenti- 

 ful, even should none be found there in the first instance. 

 We shall allow our hunter all the agility, patience, and care 

 which his occupation requires, and will march in his rear, 

 as if we were spies watching all his motions. His dress, you 

 observe, consists of a leathern hunting-shirt, and a pair of 

 trousers of the same material. His feet are well moccasined ; 

 he wears a belt round his waist ; his heavy rifle is resting on 

 his brawny shoulder; on one side hangs his ball-pouch, sur- 

 mounted by the horn of an ancient buffalo, once the terror of 

 the herd, but now containing a pound of. the best gunpowder. 

 His butcher-knife is scabbarded in the same strap ; and behind 

 is a tomahawk, the handle of which has been thrust through 

 his girdle. He walks with so rapid a step that probably few 

 men besides ourselves, that is, myself and my kind reader, could 

 follow him, unless for a short distance, in their anxiety to 

 witness his ruthless deeds. He stops, looks at the flint of his 

 gun, its priming, and the leather cover of the lock, then glances 

 his eye towards the sky, to judge of the course most likely to 

 lead him to the game. 



"The heavens are clear, the red glare of the sun gleains 

 through the lower branches of the lofty trees, the dew hangs in 

 pearly drops at the top of every leaf. Already has the emerald 

 hue of the foliage been converted into the more glowing tints of 

 our autumnal months. A slight frost appears on the fence 

 rails of his little corn-field. 



" As he proceeds he looks to the dead foliage under his feet, in 

 search of the well-known traces of a buck's hoof. Now he bends 

 toward the ground, on which something has attracted his atten- 

 tion. See, he alters his course, increases his speed, and will 

 soon reach the opposite hill. Now he moves with caution, stops 

 at almost every tree, and peeps forward, as if already within 



