6 BEITANNY A^D THE CHASE. 



before the Deluge^ seems to me absurd. What did Abel do 

 with the sheep he kept, or Nimrod with the game he 

 hunted ? What is the meaning of the " dominion " given 

 by God to Adam over the animal creation ? Do not his 

 '^ incisor " teeth prove him to be carnivorous ? And last, 

 but not least, is it possible for man in all climes to live 

 solely on vegetables ? There is the story of the man who 

 thought he had discovered how to keep his horse upon 

 nothing, and had got down to a straw a day, loJien the 

 animal died; and such would be the end of the vegetable 

 doctrine. But one thing is certain, that these green vege- 

 tarians are naturally averse from sporting from want of 

 disposition or time, or deficiency in strength or spirit, and 

 so they " compound for what they are inclined to, by 

 damning what they have no mind to." But to return, — 

 where is the sporting blood like the English ? Show it, 

 and I will honor it. Place the Englishman where you 

 will, and he speedily becomes the conqueror of the brnte 

 creation around him. Lloyd in Norway and Gumming in 

 Gaffreland, Williamson in Bengal and Murray in Ganada, 

 Anglo-Saxons in America, English settlers in India and 

 Australia, sealers at the North Pole and whalers at the 

 South, — all speak to one fact, the innate love of sporting 

 in the Englishman. Young Cantabs go to shoot in Hun- 

 gary and Transylvania ; Lord Grosvenor (well-named 

 " Gros-venour ") and friends accept a friendly invitation to 

 hunt in Nepaul ; amateurs of tiger hunting go express to 

 Lidia, and imitators of Water ton to the Nile. Who do 

 these things but the English, and where is the sporting 

 spirit like theirs ? And no mean spirit is it which prompts 



