104 GAME. 



The man who kills his two or three pound trout with 

 an eight- ounce rod, correspondingly light tackle, and 

 delicate fly, has a half-hour of exquisite enjoyment of 

 which the ground-bait man can form no conception, 

 though the latter may get more fish ; and the successful 

 stalking of a black-tailed buck, even though it involves 

 hours of severe labour, is more full of pure satisfaction to 

 the thorough sportsman than the murder of an acre of 

 buffaloes. 



The first necessity to a successful sportsman is a good 

 equipment. For all large animal game he must have a 

 good breech -loading rifle, of calibre not less than forty-five, 

 and plenty of the best ammunition. 



The arrangement of sights and triggers is a matter of 

 taste and habit, but it is of the gravest importance that 

 the sight, however arranged, should be exquisitely fine. 



Personally, I most decidedly object to elevating 

 sights for the rifle. Out of ten deer or other animals 

 missed, at least nine are over-shot. Either from excite- 

 ment, or because the game appears dwarfed in the wide 

 expanse of prairie, even the most experienced sportsmen 

 habitually overestimate distance, and the tendency to 

 put up the elevating sights is so irresistible that nearly 

 every successful sportsman of my acquaintance has dis- 

 carded this sight entirely. Besides this, the use of the 

 elevating sight does not in the least solve the problem. It 

 does very well for shooting at a target where the distance 

 is accurately measured ; and if the sportsman could only 

 induce the deer to stand still at 500, 600, or 800 

 yards, he might estimate the distance and hit it. But the 

 deer fails to be so accommodating, and will insist on stop- 

 ping at 650, and 737 yards, or some irregular distance of 

 which the sight takes no account. Moreover, as the tra- 

 jectory of these high ranges must necessarily be greatly 

 curved, the chances are infinitely against the sportsman. 

 He must first guess at the distance, then put up the 

 elevating sight nearest that distance ; then guess again as 



