INTER-OCEAN HUNTING TALES 



these two classes are indiscriminately laid on 

 the shoulders of the sportsman by people who 

 have a misty idea about real sport. 



The desire to kill is instinctive, and, re- 

 fined under civilizing influences, produces the 

 sportsman. The mere love of killing for the 

 sake of doing so soon palled on people who 

 had any conception of sport. The true theory 

 of sport, whether in playing games or in hunt- 

 ing, necessarily involves the idea of a contest 

 or trial of skill wherein there is a certain 

 element of chance. The rapid destruction of 

 game, consequent upon the easy mastery of 

 nature by man, led in quite early times to the 

 establishment of game preserves and the en- 

 actment of laws for the preservation of game. 

 The killing of game developed into a pastime, 

 and rules regulating its enjoyment readily 

 grew out of this method of recreation. In 

 other words it came to be regarded as a sport 

 or game wherein the hunted had rights or 

 privileges which had to be respected the same 

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