110 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
bia, especially if it were any distance away; but he had 
no objection to it when it was in camp. Having cut 
some branchlets of cedar, spruce, fir, and other trees, we 
made a thick, soft, and fragrant bed for ourselves in the 
further part of the tent, and then sat down to-revel in 
the majestic sylvan scenery which environed us. Few men 
who are at all impressible could gaze on the landscape that 
surrounded us without being elevated by it, and having 
their thoughts raised above the more sordid feelings of 
life. 
It makes man better, it seems to me, to be alone some- 
times with wild, primeval nature, for it softens the heart, 
ennobles the mind, and causes him to look more kindly 
upon the errors of his fellow-creatures. There is some- 
thing so exalting and majestic in grand scenery, es- 
pecially if it is softened by sylvan beauty, that a person 
sympathizes keenly with the poet who wrote 
*‘There is a pleasure in the pathless wood, 
There is a rapture on the lonely shore; 
There is society where none intrude, 
By the deep sea, and music of its roar.” 
I was so buoyant at the time that I felt like repeating 
the lines aloud, but as it was evident that all were con- 
templating the scene with a profound enjoyment, I re- 
strained my impulses, and gave myself up to a placid and 
pleasurable meditation, which was not disturbed by any 
sound for fifteen or twenty minutes. Having filled my 
mind with the delights of the scene, I proposed that we 
should go to work at once, as it was nearly ten o’clock, 
and the suggestion proving acceptable, each person be- 
gap giving his opinion about the kind of game we ought 
to pursue. After all had been heard, it was decided that 
we should travel in pairs, and that some should go after 
birds, and others after deer, in order to make our repasts 
as varied as possible. I accompanied the owner of the 
terrier, as it was our duty to supply the feathered game 
