Viii INTRODUCTION. 



of natnral history, and laid the foundation of a collec- 

 tion which has since swelled to gigantic proportions.* 

 Finding that the climate did not agree with me, I re- 

 tired from the service and returned hopie, where, re- 

 suming my old hunting habits, I was enabled, through 

 the kindness of a wide circle of friends, to follow my 

 favorite pursuit of deer-stalking so successfully that I 

 speedily found myself in possession of a fine collection 

 of select heads from most of the Scottish deer-forests. 

 Growing weary, however, of hunting in a country where 

 the game was strictly preserved, and where the contin- 

 ual presence of keepers and foresters took away half the 

 charm of the chase, and longing once more for the free- 

 dom of nature and the life of the wild hunter — so far 

 preferable to that of the mere sportsman — I resolved 

 to visit the rolling prairies and rocky mountains of the 

 Far West, where my nature would find congenial sport 

 with the bison, the wapiti, and the elk. With this 

 view, I obtained a commission in the Eoyal Veteran 

 Newfoundland Companies. But I speedily discovered 

 that the prospect of getting from the barrack square 

 would be small, and that I should have little chance 

 of playing the Nimrod while attached to this corps. I 

 accordingly effected an exchange into the Cape Eifle- 

 men, and in 1843 found myself once more in the coun- 

 try upon whose frontiers dwelt those vast herds of game 

 which had so often fired my imagination, and made me 

 long to revisit it. 



Immediately upon landing, I -marched with my di- 

 vision of the army of occupation, under the command 



• Which may now be seen in my South Ameiicaa Mnsenin at the 

 Chinese Galleiy in London. 



