11 



advantage of the man who holds the rifle. To get 

 within range of the wild stag on his native mountain 

 may mean several hours of strenuous walking, but 

 it is the abihty of the guide in the choice of ground, 

 method of approach, and judgment of how local con- 

 tours will affect the wind, that the rifleman must 

 depend on to secure the desired shot. The expert 

 stalker may feel a momentary pang of disappointment 

 when after the exercise of aU his skill he brings the 

 stalk to a successful chmax and the man with the 

 rifle then misses an easy shot, but he will still have 

 the satisfaction of knowing that he himseK has scored 

 a triumph over the wild. 



The love of sport was engrafted in us by nature for 

 our mental and physical weU-being — that is, to give 

 an absorbing recreation as a rehef from life's stem 

 duties, and at the same time encourage the desire for 

 hard exercise, without which there can be neither 

 bodily fitness nor good health. Nowadays, in pur- 

 suance of the sport we love there is a tendency to 

 forget that nature meant we should enjoy it, only 

 after hard work and stubborn endurance. The smooth 

 and easy way, the desire for comfort and luxury, the 

 warmth and soft side of life, they all make a natural 

 appeal to the sybarite within us. We do not reaUse 

 that by thus indulging the appetite for luxury, much 

 of the pleasure we strive to attain is withheld. 



Riding to hounds six days or even four days a week 

 must always be strenuous exercise and will keep 

 followers of the sport from becoming flabby in either 

 mind or muscle, but motor-cars have latterly con- 

 siderably modified the severity of a fox-hunter's 

 exertions. At the close of last century everyone 

 would cheerfully accept the thought of a fifteen or 



