162 THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



is the same with the Red Indians, and the white 

 trappers and hunters in wild regions, who depend 

 much more on their knowledge of the ways and habits 

 of the fur-bearing animals than upon their skill with 

 the rifle. A man may be an excellent shot with gun 

 or rifle, and yet be quite incapable of coping on com- 

 paratively equal terms with wild creatures. He is a 

 sportsman, depending on skill, quick sight, and ready 

 hand — not a hunter. Perhaps the nearest approach 

 to it in legitimate English sport is in fly-fishing and 

 salmon fishing, when the sportsman relies upon his 

 own unassisted efforts. Deer-stalking, where the 

 sportsman has to reckon on the wind, and its curious 

 twists and turns in valleys and round rocks, would be 

 a very near approach to it did the stalker stalk alone. 

 But all this work is usually done for him by an 

 attendant, a native Highlander; and this man really 

 does pit his intelligence against that of the stag. The 

 Highlander actually is a Red Indian, or hunter, and 

 in this sense struggles with the wild animal. The 

 poacher is the hunter on illegitimate ground, and with 

 arts which it has been mutually agreed shall not be 

 employed. 



Considered in this sense it is interesting to observe 

 to what extent the intelligence even of a fish reaches 

 — and I think upon reflection it will be found that 

 the fish is as clever as any creature could be in its 

 position. I deny altogether that the cold-blooded 

 fish — looked on with contempt so far as its intellectual 

 powers are concerned — is stupid, or slow to learn. On 

 the contrar}^ fish are remarkably quick, not only 

 under natural conditions, but quick at accommodating 



