230 RECKLESS RIDING. 



of which the rotting carcases of 112 animals, killed 

 thus, were seen lying dead on quite a small extent of 

 ground. * We fear much the same sort of thing has 

 of late years been done by Boer shooters in South 

 Africa, where the game has been either driven away 

 or exterminated over a vast territory, covered in Mr. 

 Gordon Cumming's time (1843 to 1848) with enormous 

 numbers of every kind of splendid game. 



It was not however with a view to countenancing 

 the slaughter of great numbers of living and beautiful 

 creatures (a practice which we have always held in ab- 

 horrence), that we have made the foregoing remarks; we 

 mention these matters with quite other intentions, namely 

 to show that the maiming of many horses and much 

 game, by recklessly riding over every obstacle and firing 

 at full gallop, was not the best way of killing game. 



Then as regards the plan of going after it without 

 horses, entirely on foot, it must be remembered that 

 there is a limit to human capabilities for resisting 

 fatigue, and that in the trackless wilds the distances 

 to be contended with are so great, and game often so 

 widely scattered, that a man often requires all the help 

 he can get from the services of a steady and faithful 

 shooting horse, before he can make even a fair bag. 



After upwards of thirty years pretty continuous service 

 and experience of plains life and sporting on the North 

 American prairies, Colonel Dodge thus expresses himself 

 with regard to his hunting experiences 



"A good steady horse is of inestimable value; amounted 

 man can always hunt over a much greater extent of country, 

 and see further among bush, than if on foot, and when 



* See The Hunting Grotinds of the Great West, by Colonel Richard 

 ]. Dodge, U.S.A., 1877, p. 136. 



