THE MULE-DEER 255 



are the qualities needed by the soldier; and a curious 

 feature of the changed conditions of modern warfare is 

 that they call, to a much greater extent than during the 

 two or three centuries immediately past, for the very 

 qualities of individual initiative, ability to live and work 

 in the open, and personal skill in the management of 

 horse and weapons, which are fostered by a hunter's life. 

 No training in the barracks or on the parade-ground is 

 as good as the training given by a hard hunting trip in 

 which a man really does the work for himself, learns to 

 face emergencies, to study country, to perform feats of 

 hardihood, to face exposure and undergo severe labor. 

 It is an excellent thing for any man to be a good horse- 

 man and a good marksman, to be bold and hardy, and 

 wonted to feats of strength and endurance, to be able to 

 live in the open, and to feel a self-reliant readiness in any 

 crisis. Big game hunting tends to produce or develop 

 exactly these physical and moral traits. To say that it 

 may be pursued in a manner or to an extent which is 

 demoralizing, is but to say what can likewise be said of 

 all other pastimes and of almost all kinds of serious busi- 

 ness. That it can be abused either in the way in which 

 it is done, or the extent to which it is carried, does not 

 alter the fact that it is in itself a sane and healthy rec- 

 reation. 



