UPLAND SHOOTING. 179 



if some half-dozen or eight farmers, whose land I know, would 

 resolutely put an end to all shooting on their premises, they 

 could readily let the right of shooting to an association of gen- 

 tlemen, at a price which would put a hundred dollars annually 

 into each of their pockets. 



I could find the gentlemen who wtiuld give it, and be hut too 

 glad of the opportunity ; and who, looking forward to enjoy- 

 ment of the same sport in future years, would neither wantonly 

 annihilate the stock, nor do the mischief to the grass crops, and 

 fences, which continually results from the incursions of the 

 loafers and vagabonds, who compose the great bulk of ixiral 

 sportsmen. I really should gi-eatly rejoice at seeing something 

 of this sort attempted. Its effect would be most beneficial on 

 the presei-vation of game generally throughout the United 

 States. 



At the beginning of the AVoodcock season, to revert to things 

 as they now are, it is an easy matter to find birds, if you are 

 in a good country ; and in truth, except in the immediate 

 vicinity of the large cities, there is no difficulty in finding 

 broods enough to amuse a few leisure hours ; although it is 

 daily becoming more and more questionable whether it is 

 worth the while of dwellers in the Atlantic cities, to keep dogs 

 for the puipose of Cock-shooting, and to make excursions some 

 fifty or sixty miles inland for sport during the season. A due 

 regard to truth compels me to say that such excursions have 

 ceased to be what they were, " cwisule Flanco," when General 

 Jackson was first President; yet farther inland there are 

 doubtless still places to be found abounding with the tribe of 

 Scolopax; although from the "Big Piece," and the "Little 

 Piece," from Chatham and the " Drowned Lands," the glory 

 of his house has, for the most part, departed. 



In July, then, there is ordinarily but little skill to be dis- 

 played in the mere act of finding the birds, for there is nothing 

 to be done but to beat the ground carefully, thoroughly and 

 slowly, wherever there is water and covert. Unless the brood 

 of the sensoii lias been annihilated already, or the gi-ound &-.» 



