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Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851

"Oak Openings"

It is not improbable
that some manifestation of feeling would have escaped the circle,
had not an interruption to the proceedings occurred, which put a
stop to all other emotions but those peculiar to the lives of
savages.


CHAPTER XVIII.
Nearer the mount stood Moses; in his hand
The rod which blasted with strange plagues the realm
Of Misraim, and from its time-worn channels
Upturned the Arabian sea. Fair was his broad
High front, and forth from his soul-piercing eye
Did legislation look; which full he fixed
Upon the blazing panoply undazzled.
--HILLHOUSE.
It often happens in the recesses of the wilderness, that, in the
absence of men, the animals hunt each other. The wolves, in
particular, following their instincts, are often seen in packs,
pressing upon the heels of the antelope, deer, and other creatures
of that family, which depend for safety more on their speed than on
their horns. On the present occasion, a fine buck, with a pack of
fifty wolves close after it, came bounding through the narrow gorge
that contained the rill, and entered the amphitheatre of the bottom-
land.


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