American Big Game in its Haunts 



mains unchanged; all the conditions for their sur- 

 vival constantly become more difficult. Man has, 

 in its perfection, the rapid-firing rifle, which, with 

 the use of smokeless powder, gives him an enor- 

 mous Increase of effectiveness in its flat trajectory. 

 This Is quite as great an element of its destructive- 

 ness as its more deadly power and capacity for 

 quick shooting, since it eliminates the necessity for 

 accurately gauging distance, one of the hardest 

 things for the amateur hunter to learn. If man 

 so desires, he can command the aid of dogs. By 

 their power of scent he has wild animals at his 

 mercy, and unless he deliberately regulates the 

 slaughter which he will permit, their entire exter- 

 mination would be a matter of only a few years. 

 Only at the end of the last year we were told of 

 the celebration in the Tyrol of the killing, by 

 the Emperor of Austria, of his two thousandth 

 chamois. Eight years ago this same record was 

 achieved by another Austrian, a Grand Duke. This 

 was in both instances, as I understand, by the means 

 of fair and square stalking, quite different from 

 the methods of the more degenerate battue. At a 

 single shooting exhibition of this latter sort by the 

 Crown Prince of Germany at his estate In Schles- 

 wlg, on one day In December last, were killed two 

 hundred and ten fallow deer, three hundred and 



414 



