Bancroft UbtlB 



INTRODUCTION. 



As the author is so well known to American sportsmen 

 through his contributions to the American Field, it is not 

 necessary that I should commend the book to their considera- 

 tion. 



Being in favor of educating that portion of the public 

 who are not sportsmen to the importance of healthy outdoor 

 sports as the surest and best method of securing and main- 

 taining good health, and believing that sketches such as this 

 book contains contribute most forcibly to this end, by creating 

 a desire to participate in such scenes and pleasures as they 

 recount, it is, therefore, to the general reader that I commend 

 this book. 



Not physically only, but mentally also, are outdoor sports 

 invigorating ; and rapidly are the people realizing what the 

 greatest savans have long since realized : mens sana in corpore 

 sano. 



Satisfied that the protection and propagation of game 

 birds, game animals and game fishes, apart from an economic 

 point of view, demand the attention of the people as afford- 

 ing the facilities for the maintenance of health and repairing 

 overworked bodies and brains, I look upon a book like this, 

 which treats of the pleasures of the gun, rifle or rod in a 

 most entertaining manner, as a missionary sent out to en- 



