I Q2 HORSES IN PLAINS HUNTING. 



forming groups and thickets, but more commonly 

 standing well aloof from each other, like fruit trees 

 planted in an orchard, with open grass land occupying 

 the intervening space. 



Such in brief are the three classes of country in 

 which the wild sports treated of in this chapter are 

 mostly supposed to be followed. 



Horses are here, in nearly all cases, an essential part 

 of the hunter's equipment; the distances are so great, 

 and the area of country to be hunted over so extensive, 

 that a man travelling on foot would be unable to 

 effect much, except at the cost of bodily fatigue and 

 exertion, which few men are equal to endure for any 

 length of time consecutively. 



Now although the masses of game animals that 

 regularly inhabit the plains are immensely numerous, 

 on account of this enormous extent of country over 

 which they are free to roam in every direction, it 

 often happens that the hunter may travel right ahead, 

 day after day for long distances, without meeting 

 game in any considerable numbers ; indeed several 

 consecutive days may pass without a living thing 

 coming into view, except perhaps some small birds, 

 or a few crows, or other minor birds of prey. Then 

 suddenly antelopes and other game may begin to 

 appear, and the expectant hunter may at last have 

 reached a district where it may be worth his while 

 to halt for a few days, "Hunting and Stalking on 

 the Plains." 



It must be evident that hunting conducted under 

 such conditions must be so very different to that 

 carried on among dense thickets and in great forests, 

 that we consider the two classes of sport are better 



