AN ENGLISH SPORTSMAN ON THE PRAIRIES. 307 



against them. Poisoning wells would, to be sure, be 

 hardly a more unrighteous mode of warfare ; but what 

 feature of this most unwarantable, and hitherto unsuc- 

 cessful conflict, is otherwise than unrighteous ? 



The sport most novel to me, at the Maiden races, was 

 a trotting match on horseback, & la Yankee three 

 horses, and heats of three miles merciless work, ridicu- 

 lous and ungraceful as a spectacle, and destructive of 

 all the romance, if there be any, of horsemanship. The 

 English regulation of backing the wheels in harness, and 

 turning the horse in riding, should the trot be broken, 

 is not observed, nor indeed, necessary in this country ; 

 for an American trotter loses speed by galloping. 



Amherstburg is an excellent shooting quarter ; snipe 

 and wild fowl are in swarms, woodcock and quail abund- 

 ant, the latter, the finest of the species I have ever seen ; 

 and wild turkeys and deer are to be had by a little la- 

 bor. Among the officers of the 34th, there are many 

 keen sportsmen, and good shots, and the destruction of 

 game must be considerable. My best day's sport at 

 this place, amounted to fourteen brace and a half of quails, 

 a couple of ducks, a woodcock, and, though last not least, as 

 my shoulders can testify, a wild turkey. On the follow- 

 ing day, I got another of this noble kind of feathered 

 game ; and on each occasion was much favored by luck, 

 for I shot them both in fields of Indian corn my charge 

 an ounce of quail-shot instead of hunting for them in 

 the woods, to the abandonment of smaller game, and 

 using ball or slugs, as is' usually necessary. A very 

 uncommon opportunity of killing, right and left, wild 

 turkeys on the wing, was given to me on the second 



