4 A Book of the Snipe, 



gency or problem with a device or solution as 

 sudden as Itself. That adequate hundredth 

 man will have his will against adversaries far 

 more formidable In other respects than him- 

 self, and he is to be found more often in 

 the ranks of sportsmen than in any other 

 of the battalions which make up the army 

 of life. 



For a day's sport is but a series of de- 

 cisions, most of them Instantaneous. The 

 deer - stalker must take his shot, or the 

 chance will fly quicker than the bullet from 

 his rifle. The rider to hounds must mark 

 the exit to the field whilst yet in the air 

 above the fence which lets him into it, 

 otherwise he will get *' pounded," and forfeit 

 his run. The fisherman's brain must send 

 the message to his hand to strike or not to 

 strike, gaff or not gaff, with speed as incal- 

 culable as the rush of a telegram along the 

 wires : the hesitation of the duration of the 

 tick of a watch may lose him the twenty 

 pounds of live silver flashing beneath the 

 bubbly surface of the salmon-pool. 



