292 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



takes an artist to touch them. Having digressed, I 

 may as well continue down a path which has 

 always proved thorny to me. English sport, as 

 practised by the finest shots and riders in England, 

 seems to be entirely misapprehended in America, 

 particularly in the West. Years ago, I remember 

 a long article on fox-hunting which appeared in a 

 first-class weekly paper. From beginning to end 

 the^ writer displayed an ignorance of his subject 

 that was absolutely monumental. I wrote an 

 answer, temperately worded, giving a few statistics, 

 stating what fox-hunting represented in dollars to 

 English farmers, the number of men employed, 

 the number of horses bred for hunting, and so 

 forth. My letter was not inserted. It would be 

 well for writers about to abuse modern English 

 methods of shooting, to consult some text-book 

 (there are many) of sport, and to learn what these 

 methods mean for the masses. Not only do thou- 

 sands of men find healthy and remunerative employ- 

 ment, but hospitals and countless poor families 

 throughout the land are given large quantities of 

 wholesome and delicious food. It is not too much 

 to say that if the game laws of England were 

 abolished, game would never be eaten at all save 

 by the very rich who could afford to import it. 



None the less, nearly all men not past the prime 

 of life prefer good wild shooting when they can get 

 it. And to most, a mixed bag has superlative 

 charms. We seldom returned from the marshes 

 without mallard, canvasback, sprig, redheads, teal, 

 widgeon, and snipe, with here and there a goose or 

 brant, and very occasionally a swan. There are 



