INTRODUCTORY 5 



One often hears the expression ' outdoor sports,' 

 and I always wonder what kind of sport it is that 

 can be enjoyed indoors. My idea of sport is 

 pursuing a wild beast or bird in the open air, and 

 in the country where the object of pursuit has 

 been bred. You may think this rather a narrow- 

 minded view, but that is how it appears to me. 

 The man who had a thousand pheasants down 

 from Leadenhall market, and turning them out 

 of his attic-windows, shot them as they rocketed 

 over high elm-trees, may have had some very 

 pretty shooting, but I do not think any one could 

 call it sport. I have never done any hawking, 

 but that I should certainly call sport. Nearly 

 all forms of fishing also deserve the name, whether 

 it be the higher art with the fly or the humble 

 angling for coarse fish in a sluggish river. The 

 pleasures of both shooting and fishing are very 

 considerably enhanced when your bag or basket 

 is meant for the pot. ' Pot-hunter ' is generally 

 used as a term of reproach, and yet I think the 

 pot should be the ultimate end you ought always 

 to have in view. Suppose yourself in the Rockies 

 or some other wild place, a hundred miles from 

 the nearest butcher, and the camp is in want of 



