FOURTEENTH DAY. 225 
Our steamer ran quickly past all the lonely forests of the 
“auen;” and the throbbing of the engine and the puffing of 
the funnel formed a sharp contrast to the infinite repose of 
these uninhabited districts. 
Sadly we gazed at the beautiful woods and the grand river, 
and there was not one of us who would not willingly have 
turned back to ramble through these interesting localities on 
fresh shooting-excursions, and to lead for a long time a life 
so full of variety and so different from the monotony of 
ordinary everyday existence. It is on such expeditions that 
one first learns what it is to enjoy real sport; for when shoot- 
ing is combined with scientific studies and the exploration of 
unknown tracts of country, and is also attended by frequent 
privations and hard work, it becomes an exciting pursuit 
which reaches beyond the limits of empty pleasures. But in 
all Central Europe, excepting our noble Alps, there is no 
longer any sport to be found which offers this higher kind of 
interest; for in all the ordinary districts which civilization has 
reduced to such a dead level of uniformity, the poor game 
has been forced by man into little retreats, and is by some 
people so systematically tended that it has become almost 
domesticated. There is no real pleasure in an easy day’s 
shooting well arranged by a large staff of keepers, for it 
demands no personal effort and no hard work. It is only 
shooting-practice, a mere stroll witha gun. Therefore if any 
one wants to shoot in a fine manly way, let him go to places 
where the game lives free and fetterless, and where sport 
involves exertions that are not within every one’s powers of 
endurance. 
Let the kindly reader pardon this digression, for it has all 
slipped from my pen while thinking of the many effeminate 
young men of the day who pose as hardy sportsmen because 
with a certain amount of skill they slaughter the poor game 
in well-organized battues! 
