178 SPORT. 



kept more alert by constant training, and are con- 

 sequently perhaps more difficult to approach than 

 those who possibly are only stalked once or twice 

 in a season, if at all. One difference, however, I 

 have observed ; if you miss or frighten a deer in 

 the wild country, there is no finding him in the 

 next corrie, as you often may do on *' preserved " 

 ground ; he will make a ten-mile point or so, and 

 you will probably not see him again that day. 

 What I mean is that the whole thing is a make- 

 believe and a sham. You may be to all appearance 

 on a wild hill-top, surrounded by nature not yet 

 clothed by man, in her original and naked beauty, 

 and you may compare yourself, in the exuberant 

 arrogance of your sporting imagination, to the 

 savage hunter of the desert, but, as I say, it is 

 all a sham. 



Nature, it is true, is left nude, but only because 

 she is not worth dressing, and instead of a desert 

 you are really in a reserved seat in a stall or private 

 box, at your sporting opera, as much so as if you 



