196 AMERICAN GAME. 
ties along the low and level shores of the Delaware, in 
the wide, open meadows, where there is not a bush or 
brake to be seen for miles; but more generally in low, 
swampy woods, particularly in maple woods, which have 
an undergrowth of alder; along the margin of oozy 
streamlets, creeping through moist meadows, among 
willow thickets; and in wet pastures trampled by cattle, 
and set here and there with little brakes, which afford 
them shade and shelter during the heat of the day. 
Of the latter description is the ground, once so famous 
for its summer cock-shooting, known as “the drowned 
lands,” in Orange County, New York, extending for 
miles and miles along the margins of the Wallkill and 
its tributaries, the Black Creek, the Quaker Creek, and 
the beautiful Wawayanda. Many a day of glorious 
sport have I had on those sweet level meadows, enjoyed 
with friends long since dispersed and scattered, some 
dead, untimely, some in far distant lands, some false- 
and some forgetful, and thou, true-hearted, honest, merry- 
brave, Tom Draw; thou whilom king of hosts and 
emperor of sportsmen, thou, saddest fate of all, smitten, 
or ere thy prime was passed away, by the most fearful 
visitation that awaits mankind—the awiul doom of 
blindness! never again shall I draw trigger on those 
once loved levels—the railroad now thunders and 
whistles close beside them, and every man and boy and 
fool, now sports his fowling-piece ; and not a woodcock 
on the meadows but, after running the gauntlet of a 
