HUNTING LORE. 255 



CHAPTER XII. 



HUNTING LORE. 



TT has been my good-luck to kill every kind 

 " of game properly belonging to the United 

 States : though one beast which I never had 

 a chance to slay, the jaguar, from the torrid 

 South, sometimes comes just across the Rio 

 Grande ; nor have I ever hunted the musk-ox 

 and polar bear in the boreal wastes where they 

 dwell, surrounded by the frozen desolation of 

 the uttermost North. 



I have never sought to make large bags, for 

 a hunter should not be a game butcher. It is 

 always lawful to kill dangerous or noxious ani- 

 mals, like the bear, cougar, and wolf ; but 

 other game should only be shot when there is 

 need of the meat, or for the sake of an unusu- 

 ally fine trophy. Killing a reasonable number 

 of bulls, bucks, or rams does no harm what- 

 ever to the species ; to slay half the males of 

 any kind of game would not stop the natural 

 increase, and they yield the best sport, and 

 are the legitimate objects of the chase. Cows, 

 does, and ewes, on the contrary, should only 

 be killed (unless barren) in case of necessity ; 

 during my last five years' hunting I have killed 



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