BOOKS ON BIG GAME 323 



he can be a good big game hunter. Fortunately, Rich- 

 ard Jeffries has written an altogether charming little vol- 

 ume on the Red Deer, so that there is at least one game 

 animal which has been fully described by a man of letters, 

 who was also both a naturalist and a sportsman; but it is 

 irritating to think that no one has done as much for the 

 lordlier game of the wilderness. Not only should the 

 hunter be able to describe vividly the chase, and the life 

 habits of the quarry, but he should also draw the wilder- 

 ness itself, and the life of those who dwell or sojourn 

 therein. We wish to see before us the cautious stalk and 

 the headlong gallop ; the great beasts as they feed or rest 

 or run or make love or fight; the wild hunting camps; 

 the endless plains shimmering in the sunlight; the vast, 

 solemn forests; the desert and the marsh and the moun- 

 tain chain; and all that lies hidden in the lonely lands 

 through which the wilderness wanderer roams and hunts 

 game. 



But there remain a goodly number of books which are 

 not merely filled with truthful information of impor- 

 tance, but which are also absorbingly interesting; and if 

 a book is both truthful and interesting it is surely entitled 

 to a place somewhere in general literature. Unfortu- 

 nately, the first requisite bars out a great many hunting 

 books. There are not a few mighty hunters who have 

 left long records of their achievements, and who undoubt- 

 edly did achieve a great deal, but who contrive to leave 

 in the mind of the reader the uncomfortable suspicion, 

 that besides their prowess with the rifle they were skilled 

 in the use of that more archaic weapon, the long bow. 



