HOW TO GET IT. 117 



little a man can do with and be healthy, how little he 

 may have and be contented. These are professional 

 hunters. 



In season or out of season they kill everything that 

 comes in their way. If the animal is unfit for food its 

 skin may bring a dime or two. Once in two or three 

 months they will go to the nearest railroad town, sell off 

 the peltries they have accumulated, buy a little flour and 

 bacon, a bag of salt, and a few beans. The balance of 

 the money is either lost at a faro bank or spent in a 

 roaring spree, after which they return to the wilderness. 

 These men think only of to-day. The game have no 

 respite or opportunity for recuperation, and must soon 

 disappear. 



Every sportsman can appreciate the feeling, even 

 though he may not imitate the action, of the old fisher- 

 man who, going out to catch cat-fish, threw back into 

 the water all other fish caught, even though better than 

 cat-fish, saying in explanation, ' When I go a-catting, I go 

 a-catting.' There is great gratification in feeling that one 

 has so educated himself to a knowledge of the habits of 

 game as to say with certainty, ' I shall kill such game 

 to-day.' This feeling is not confined to hunters of large 

 game. I know an Eastern sportsman who will not fire at 

 a quail when out after woodcock or snipe ; but the most 

 successful plains hunters, when after bear or elk, will 

 fire at nothing smaller. This is really necessary to 

 success with these large animals, which are so timid that 

 even a distant sound of the rifle will at once send them 

 to close cover. 



However satisfying to one's vanity this kind of hunting 

 may be, I confess that my taste for sport is rather of the 

 vagabond order. I like to bag these large animals ; but 

 I like better to ride through a country where game is in 

 great variety, rifle and shot-gun both ready for use, bag- 

 ging now a deer or an antelope, now getting into a flock 

 of turkeys ; at one time banging into a flock of ducks, at 



