HUNTING LORE. 255 



CHAPTER XII. 



HUNTING LORE. 



TT has been my good-luck to kill every kind 

 -*- of game properly belonging to the United 

 States : though one beast which I never had 

 a chance to slay, the jaguar, from the torrid 

 South, sometimes comes just across the Rio 

 Grande ; nor have I ever hunted the musk-ox 

 and polar bear in the boreal wastes where they 

 dwell, surrounded by the frozen desolation of 

 the uttermost North. 



I have never sought to make large bags, for 

 a hunter should not be a game butcher. It is 

 always lawful to kill dangerous or noxious ani- 

 mals, like the bear, cougar, and wolf ; but 

 other game should only be shot when there is 

 need of the meat, or for the sake of an unusu- 

 ally fine trophy. Killing a reasonable number 

 of bulls, bucks, or rams does no harm what- 

 ever to the species ; to slay half the males of 

 any kind of game would not stop the natural 

 increase, and they yield the best sport ? and 

 are the legitimate objects of the chase. Cows, 

 does, and ewes, on the contrary, should only 

 be killed (unless barren) in case of necessity ; 

 during my last five years' hunting I have killed 



