PKAIRIE SPdKTS. 257 



and currents of air, which so perplex him by their shifts and 

 veering among the glens, gorges, and corries of the Scottish 

 hills, often bringing him dead to windward of his game, and 

 baffling all his hopes of a shot, when he has been manoeuvi'ing 

 for hours to work well to leeward of some grand Stag royal, 

 and is already flattering himself that he has succeeded. Thus 

 fa;-, the prairie stalking is easier than its correspondent sjjort 

 among the hills ; but, inasmuch as the grass of the prairies 

 affords far less covert for the stealthy sportsman than the tall 

 moorland heather, — and as there are neither crags nor cairns, 

 beneath the friendly shelter of which to wind the devious way, 

 and as yet, again, the water-courses and hollows of the great 

 Western Plains are neither so numerous nor so deep as the 

 stony rifts and gullies of the mountain torrents, it is harder to 

 approach the American than the European game. To take the 

 two sports all in all, the pros and cons as to the difficulty would 

 seem to be pretty evenly balanced, and it is very clear that no 

 bungler or milksop can succeed at either game. 



The best weapon for stalking either of these animals on foot, 

 is undoubtedly the heavy ounce-ball rifle, both from the greater 

 certainty of its execution at veiy long ranges, and especially 

 across wind ; and from the fatal nature of the large wound in- 

 flicted by its ponderous missile. At no sort of game would the 

 double-baiTelled, two-grooved rifle I have mentioned, give a 

 more decided superiority to its bearer, over the small-bored, 

 polygrooved, ill-balanced, single-barrelled piece of the Western 

 trapper, than at these monsters of the wilderness. 



In case, however, of the game taking alarm before the hunter 

 can get within range of it, or of his coming upon the drove of 

 Bison or gang of Elk, while it is in motion, he exchanges his 

 travelling horse, or sure-footed mule, for his swiftled thorough- 

 bred, — his Buffalo-runner, as it is termed in the West, — and 

 charges down, at full speed, upon the terrified and scattered 

 herds. 



If he be well mounted, he soon finds himself in the middle 

 of the huge hairy manes, stunted horns, and glaring eyes of the 

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