i 9 o RECREATION. 



DEER HUNTING. 



Isaac McLellan. 



Far in the hemlock forests of Maine 



And where thick the pine woods weave a shade. 



The noble stag with branching horn 



Flits thro' the densest wood arcade ; 



By Moosehead Lake far up the waste, 



And where Penobscot's sources rise, 



The forest hunter takes his stand, 



And in the tangled thicket lies ; 



There waits in ambush for the deer, 



That comes to taste the brooklet wave, 



Unconscious of the lurking foe, 



So eager in the fount to lave ; 



Then quick the rifle's deadly aim 



Slaughters the unwary forest game. 



Where thick the Adirondack groves, 

 Outstretch a wilderness of woods, 

 Casting a sombre endless shade 

 O'er placid lake and river-floods, 

 The hunter comes with gun and hound 

 To seek his prey in that lonely ground; 

 He knows by tracks in the grassy land, 

 By broken twig or hoof-print there 

 That dappled hind comes there for rest 

 And crops the feed in that chosen lair ; 

 No sign may escape the hunter's eye. 

 So the wary deer comes there to die ! 



Where the Southern plantations spread 

 The wild deer thro' dense forests rove ; 

 They speed thro' thicket and tangled glade, 

 Cropping the grass in shaded grove, 

 And there the eager cavalier 

 With whoop and hulloo follows the chase 

 Cheering the fierce, pursuing hound 

 In headlong dash, and tireless race. 



In long past years, ere emigrants pour'd 

 In countless bands o'er the distant West, 

 Beyond the Rocky Mountain slopes 

 And o'er the prairie realms they pressed, 

 The early settlers and trappers found 

 In trackless wastes abundant game, 

 The stately elk, the grizzly bear, 

 The antelope, the mountain sheep, 

 That scoured each plain and woodland-lair ; 

 And there the stag with antlers crown'd, 

 There in each ravine and prairie-plain, 

 Roamed free in all that forest ground 

 And there were by the ardent hunter slain. 



