HUNTING WITH HOUNDS. 177 



funny to see a man who only knows one kind, 

 and is conceited enough to think that that is 

 really the only kind worth knowing, when 

 first he is brought into contact with the other. 

 Two or three times I have known men try 

 to follow hounds on stock-saddles, which are 

 about as ill-suited for the purpose as they well 

 can be ; while it is even more laughable to 

 see some young fellow from the East or from 

 England who thinks he knows entirely too 

 much about horses to be taught by barbar- 

 ians, attempt in his turn to do cow-work with 

 his ordinary riding or hunting rig. It must 

 be said, however, that in all probability 

 cowboys would learn to ride well across 

 country much sooner than the average cross- 

 country rider would master the dashing and 

 peculiar style of horsemanship shown by those 

 whose life business is to guard the wandering 

 herds of the great western plains. 



Of course, riding to hounds, like all sports 

 in long settled, thickly peopled countries, 

 fails to develop in its followers some of the 

 hardy qualities necessarily incident to the 

 wilder pursuits of the mountain and the forest. 

 While I was on the frontier I was struck by 

 the fact that of the men from the eastern 

 States or from England who had shown them- 

 selves at home to be good riders to hounds 

 or had made their records as college athletes, 

 a larger proportion failed in the life of the 

 wilderness than was the case among those 

 who had gained their experience in such 

 rough pastimes as mountaineering in the high 



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