A COLORADO SKETCH 27 



work before they can be entitled to call themselves 

 masters of the art. I hope no one labours under 

 the delusion that hunting is a mere barbarous, 

 bloodthirsty sport. Every good hunter will agree 

 with me that it is not the killing of the animal 

 that gives pleasure. The charm lies in over- 

 coming difficulties — in matching your natural in- 

 telligence and acquired knowledge and skill against 

 the instinct, cunning, intellect, and reason of the 

 animal you are endeavouring to outwit. The 

 reward of the hunter is the same as that of the 

 student of languages, of the archaeologist, of the 

 geologist — in fact, of all scientific people. His 

 triumph is the triumph of unravelling a mystery, 

 tracing and discovering a hidden fact, grappling 

 with and overcoming a difficulty. It is the fact of 

 overcoming, not the act of killing, that brightens 

 the hunter's eye and renders his occupation so 

 charming. The hunter's craft gives health, its 

 surroundings are beautiful, it calls forth some of 

 the best qualities of man, it is full of fascination, 

 and it is no wonder that primitive races find it 

 difficult to emerge from the hunting condition. 

 It is most annoying that everything that is pleasant 

 is all wrong. We all know that peoples, in their 

 progress towards civilisation, advance from the 



