240 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



FIELD SPORTS IN ART. 



THE MAMMOTH HUNTER. 



THE most ancient attempt to delineate the objects of 

 sport in existence is, I think, the celebrated engraving 

 of a mammoth on a portion of a mammoth's tusk. I 

 call it an engraving because the figure is marked out 

 with incised lines such as the engraver makes with his 

 tool, and it is perfect enough to print from. If it were 

 inked and properly manipulated it would leave an im- 

 pression an artist's proof the most curious and extra- 

 ordinary in the world, for the block was cut with flint 

 instruments by the Cave-men an incredible number of 

 years ago, perhaps before England was separated from 

 the Continent by the sea, while the two were still con- 

 nected, and it was dry land where now the Calais- 

 Douvres steams so steadily over the waves. But it 

 would be an artist's proof with the lights and shades re- 

 versed, the lines that sketch the form of the mammoth 

 would be white and the body dark, yet for all that life- 

 like, since the undulating indentations that represent the 

 woolly hide of the immense creature would relieve the 

 ground. This picture of a prehistoric animal, drawn by 

 a prehistoric artist, shows that Art arose from the chase. 

 Traced to the den of primeval man, who had no 

 Academy to instruct him, no Ruskin to guide, and no 

 gallery to exhibit in, it appears that Art sprang from 



