ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. ACCOMPANYING THE FIRST EDITION. THAT the journal, the substance of which is contained in the following pages, was never originally intended to meet the public eye, is literally and strictly true.-This fact, in justice to myself, I offer without further comment. And the few years that intervened since the period to which it immediately relates, had very nearly the effect of suppressing it altogether. it altogether. But, dwelling with pleasure on the recollections of a country becoming now more interesting every day, and animated by leisure to revise those details written on the spot, which brought the sylvan panorama back to my memory, I found, upon reflection, that there really was much in North America to be described wholly distinct from time or period; perfectly unalterable by change of scene and lapse of years. And I was further induced to imagine that, trifling as my own personal adventures might be, as far as they related to myself, still, that the sort of life it was my lot to lead was so unusual, and had in itself so much of the novel and the curious, as not to be wholly uninteresting to the plain reader and the lover of nature. Thus influenced, I have dwelt upon the details of the forest life; while, on the other hand, I have glanced over the account of the beaten roads in a brief and cursory manner; not wishing to describe what was already sufficiently known, what has been, and will be again, no doubt, delineated by abler hands. Still the form of a diary, which I had adopted, required that all parts in my journey from Halifax to Lake Huron (a distance of more than 1200 miles) should be duly noticed; nor could any, as an integral part, with reference to the whole, have been, at all events with propriety, omitted. If, in this trifling production, I have ever been induced to venture upon matter not strictly conformable with its title, it has been owing to the intimate connexion of such matter with my subject, and the irresistible inclination I felt at the moment. It is now submitted to the world without any pretension. The anecdotes have been chiefly gleaned in solitude, and under some disadvantages quite unnecessary to relate. But the selection has been such as will, I trust, present to the reader at least a simple and faithful compilation of "Forest Scenes and Incidents in the Wilds of North America." GEORGE HEAD. CARSHALTON, Surrey, 29th MAY, 1829. |