8 BKITANNT AND THE CHASE. 



scenery or the country. He is a town animal, gregarious 

 and garrulous. Sir Francis Head notes that hence they 

 make bad emigrants. In Canada and America, instead of 

 shouldering the axe and boldly exploring the wilderness, 

 the lonely pioneers of civilisation, they stuck together in 

 bodies, consuming instead of producing, and rapidly ex- 

 haustino; their stock. 



I used to shoot occasionally with a neighbour wdio was 

 called " un tres-fort chasseur." The previous day he would 

 meet me to fix all about it, as a solemn affair. From his 

 manner, you would think he w^as going to sign the death- 

 warrant of all the gibier in the country. Plans were 

 discussed, rejected, and adopted; guns handled, dogs loudly 

 exhorted, men engaged to beat and carry game, meat and 

 drink provided, the various localities compared, and one 

 finally selected where the game was en masse. And 

 here let me explain this word. An English mind at once 

 thinks of the thickly-peopled preserve, with a spring cart 

 and pony to carry the spoil. But he would be quite at 

 fault here. Rendered in plain words, heaucoup means 

 '' one," a masse '^ two," and the superlative, wie confusion^ 

 " three." I have found this by experience. I once went to 

 a mountain where was " iine confusion parfaite de lievres," 

 as I was told. I imagined, from the term used, that they 

 would be literally running over and knocking against each 

 other, leaping into one's bag as a place of refuge ; but I 

 found th7'ee only! So are most French phrases, — cJiar^ 

 onant meaning " pretty tolerable ; " superhe '* middling ; " 

 ravissant " rather ffood ; " and so on. Five belnfj the 

 hour fixed for starting, I got up at four, and was at the ren- 



