A HINT ON COSTUME. 271 



that impression, allow me, with all kindly feeling, to take 

 an opposite stand, and assert that there is nothing which, 

 will more certainly guarantee your success than paying due 

 attention to wearing clothes that at all times harmonise 

 with the colouring of the ground over which you are about 

 to shoot. I have so many times had convincing proofs of 

 the efficacy of attending to this important point, that I 

 consider it scarcely possible to impress it too strongly upon 

 the minds of all. An instance I will state, out of many 

 others I could tell of, which I think will prove that the 

 grounds I take are strong, and beyond opposition. While 

 sojourning West I made the acquaintance of a good- 

 hearted, kind gentleman and thorough sportsman, whom 

 the uncertainty of worldly affairs had reduced much in 

 pecuniary circumstances ; in those days, although I had 

 experience, still, as now, I had much to learn ; my friend 

 was, if anything, my superior as a shot, more particularly 

 on wild fowl. On the breaking up of winter in the spring 

 of '65 in fact, the morning after a decided thaw had set 

 in he arrived at my house at an early hour, and invited 

 me to accompany him on the prairie to kill duck. For 

 some time previously all the water that was stagnant, or 

 had but slight current, had been frozen, and there being in 

 consequence no feeding-ground for the broad-bills, they 

 had taken their departure for more hospitable regions. My 

 want of success a few days before caused me to doubt if 

 better results could be obtained on this occasion, but being 



aware that H was better posted on these matters than 



any man in the vicinity, I shouldered my ten-bore, straddled 

 my Indian pony, and started for what he considered the 



