FO UR TEENTH DA Y. 223 



Our steamer ran quickly past all the lonely forests of the 

 "auen;" and the throbbing of the engine and the puffing of 

 the funnel formed a sharp contrast to the infinite repose of 

 these uninhabited districts. 



Sadly we gazed at the beautiful woods and the grand river, 

 and there was not one of us who would not willingly have 

 turned back to ramble through these interesting localities on 

 fresh shooting-excursions, and to lead for a long time a life 

 so full of variety and so different from the monotony of 

 ordinary everyday existence. It is on such expeditions that 

 one first learns what it is to enjoy real sport; for when shoot- 

 ing is combined with scientific studies and the exploration of 

 unknown tracts of country, and is also attended by frequent 

 privations and hard work, it becomes an exciting pursuit 

 which reaches beyond the limits of empty pleasures. But in 

 all Central Europe, excepting our noble Alps, there is no 

 longer any sport to be found which offers this higher kind of 

 interest; for in all the ordinary districts which civilization has 

 reduced to such a dead level of uniformity, the poor game 

 has been forced by man into little retreats, and is by some 

 people so systematically tended that it has become almost 

 domesticated. There is no real pleasure in an easy day's 

 shooting well arranged by a large staff of keepers, for it 

 demands no personal effort and no hard work. It is only 

 shooting-practice, a mere stroll with a gun. Therefore if any 

 one wants to shoot in a fine manly way, let him go to places 

 where the game lives free and fetterless, and where sport 

 involves exertions that are not within every one's powers of 

 endurance. 



Let the kindly reader pardon this digression, for it has all 

 slipped from my pen while thinking of the many effeminate 

 young men of the day who pose as hardy sportsmen because 

 with a certain amount of skill they slaughter the poor game 

 in well-organized battues ! 



