HUNTING LORE. 263 



minded, staunchly loyal, the type of the steel- 

 thewed and iron-willed hunter-warrior. 



Turning from the men of fiction to the men 

 of real life, it is worth noting how many of 

 the leaders among our statesmen and soldiers 

 have sought strength and pleasure in the 

 chase, or in kindred vigorous pastimes. Of 

 course field sports, or at least the wilder kinds, 

 which entail the exercise of daring, and the 

 endurance of toil and hardship, and which 

 lead men afar into the forests and mountains, 

 stand above athletic exercises ; exactly as 

 among the latter, rugged outdoor games, like 

 football and lacrosse, are much superior to 

 mere gymnastics and calisthenics. 



With a few exceptions the men among us 

 who have stood foremost in political leader- 

 ship, like their fellows who have led our 

 armies, have been of stalwart frame and 

 sound bodily health. When they sprang from 

 the frontier folk, as did Lincoln and Andrew 

 Jackson, they usually hunted much in their 

 youth, if only as an incident in the prolonged 

 warfare waged by themselves andtheir kinsmen 

 against the wild forces of nature. Old Israel 

 Putnam's famous wolf-killing feat comes 

 strictly under this head. Doubtless he greatly 

 enjoyed the excitement of the adventure ; but 

 he went into it as a matter of business, not of 

 sport. The wolf, the last of its kind in his 

 neighborhood, had taken heavy toll of the 

 flocks of himself and his friends ; when they 

 found the deep cave in which it had made its 

 den it readily beat off the dogs sent in to as- 



