GREAT HERDS OF GAME. 45 



EFORE entering into the general subject of wild 

 -L'sports, or the use of the rifle as a sporting 

 weapon as this book aspires in some degree to form 

 a record of the grand old hunting days, which were 

 in the zenith of their fame during the early and middle 

 portions of the igth century we have thought it 

 desirable to collect together into a special chapter some 

 accounts of the vast herds of game which are recorded 

 as having been seen by great hunters and travellers 

 in different parts of the world. 



We have endeavoured to select these instances from 

 the works of writers of acknowledged repute, whose 

 books are always likely to form standard authorities 

 upon such subjects. 



People are however very apt to judge of the past 

 by the present, and to regard with more or less 

 incredulity accounts transmitted to them from former 

 times, concerning masses of animal life and other 

 phenomena, to which it would be impossible to find 

 a parallel in the present day. It is quite an admitted 

 fact that the quantities of game are everywhere steadily 

 becoming less, and that sport is very far from being 

 what it was ; nevertheless the astonishing accounts that 

 have been given as to the great herds which used at 

 certain seasons to assemble together, in the experience 

 of sportsmen and travellers of former days, are generally 

 regarded, either as great exaggerations, or perhaps as 

 altogether fabulous. How could any country possibly 

 support such countless swarms of large animals? is a 

 common objection to the accuracy of such narratives. 



Perhaps the best reply to make to a query of this 

 kind is by asking another question, namely " If our 

 ancestors could be recalled from the tomb, what would 



