---

{i}

WILD SPORTS
IN
The Far West.

By FREDERICK GERSTAECKER.


Translated from the German.


WITH EIGHT CRAYON DRAWINGS,

EXECUTED IN OIL COLORS,

FROM DESIGNS BY HARRISON WEIR.

BOSTON:
CROSBY, NICHOLS AND COMPANY.
117 Washington Street.
1859.
{ii}

CAMBRIDGE:
ALLEN AND FARNHAM, ELECTROTYPERS AND PRINTERS.

{iii}

PREFACE.

On my return, a short time since, to my native land, from the wilds ofAmerica, it was not at first my intention to offer to the public thecontents of the diary I had kept during my travels, and written out indetail as an employment for my leisure hours, for the exclusive use ofmy family in Germany. Incited, however, by the interest awakened by thepublication of a few extracts in one of our periodicals, and yielding tothe wishes expressed by various friends who had read the remainder, Iundertook to correct and revise my notes, and to mould into a continuousnarrative a diary which I had only kept when circumstances worthy ofbeing chronicled arose,—for instance, on the voyage out, on my marchthrough the United States, during my sojourn among the swamps ofArkansas, and finally during my hunting trip in the Ozark mountains.

I have endeavored faithfully to portray the social condition of theAmericans, in so far as it came under my observation, and many a reader,while turning over{iv} the pages of this work, will seek in vain the wontedglowing descriptions of the riches and plenty which the dwellers in theWest are reputed to enjoy. It is true that the American farmercommencing operations with small means, may, by dint of very strenuousexertions, realize an independence in a shorter time than would sufficefor this object in our old fatherland; but, on the other hand, he mustbe prepared to renounce every thing that gladdened his heart in hisnative country—and only too quickly will he discover that to weanhimself from the comforts to which he has been from childhoodaccustomed, to quit the society and intercourse of the civilized world,and to seek in a far land a life of freedom indeed, but likewise ofsolitude and privation, is a harder task than it at first appeared. Andnot every man is sufficiently strong of heart to bear the emigrant’s lotwithout a murmur.

But should any inveterate sportsman, with an imagination heated by thedescription of these scenes, excited by the dangers and difficulties ofthe enterprise, depart to the far West, to experience similaradventures, let him remember, when wet, hungry, alone, and a prey tomosquitoes, he lies stretched in the untrodden forest, longing in vainfor a fire, and for the so

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!

Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!