14 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



are such as to create that peculiar feeling which can 

 only be expressed by the word " sport." This feeling 

 cannot exist in the heart of a butcher ; he would as 

 soon slaughter a fine buck by tying him to a post and 

 knocking him down, as he would shoot him in his wild 

 native haunts the actual moment of death, the fact of 

 killing, is his enjoyment. To a true sportsman the 

 enjoyment of a sport increases in proportion to the 

 wildness of the country. Catch a six-pound trout in a 

 quiet mill-pond in a populous manufacturing neighbor- 

 hood, with well-cultivated meadows on either side of 

 the stream, fat cattle grazing on the rich pasturage, 

 and, perhaps, actually watching you as you land your 

 fish : it may be sport. But catch a similar fish far from 

 the haunts of men, in a boiling, rocky torrent sur- 

 rounded by heathery mountains, where the shadow of 

 a rod has seldom been reflected in the stream, and you 

 cease to think the former fish worth catching ; still he 

 is the same size, showed the same courage, had the 

 same perfection of condition, and yet you cannot allow 

 that it was sport compared with this wild stream. If 

 you see no difference in the excitement, you are not a 

 sportsman ; you would as soon catch him in a washing 

 tub, and you should buy your fish when you require 

 him ; but never use a rod, or you would disgrace {he 

 hickory. 



This feeling of a combination of wild country with 

 the presence of the game itself to form a real sport is 

 most keenly manifested when we turn our attention to 

 the rifle. This noble weapon is thrown away in an 

 enclosed country. The smooth-bore may and does 

 afford delightful sport upon our cultivated fields : but 

 even that pleasure is doubled when those enclosuies no 



