114 SPORT IN EUROPE 



those who cannot afford to keep fifty couple of hounds, form relays, 

 and maintain an establishment of huntsmen. These have now been 

 enabled to set up small packs of bdtards, which allow of their hunting 

 every kind of animal without relays, including the roedeer, an animal 

 that, forty years ago, it was regarded as almost impossible to hunt. 



It is then unquestionably to England that we owe the improve- 

 ment of our breeds of horses, hounds, and all manner of domesticated 

 animals. It is equally to England that we owe, through the intro- 

 duction of sports, the improvement of our race by those physical 

 exercises to which the younger generation which has charge of the 

 future is now devoting itself with keen ardour and very remarkable 

 intuition. 



Racing has turned out good riders and good horses. Thirty years 

 ago it was possible to reckon up the officers who rode really well, but 

 to-day they are legion. 



Thirty years ago too a few little craft competed for prizes valued 

 at a few francs on the Seine at Argenteuil. To-day we have a tleet 

 of pleasure craft, handsome yachts manoeuvred by large crews, and 

 capable of taking part in the great international regattas. 



It is now necessary to review the French sports in which it is 

 possible for visitors to take part, and to give them some idea of 

 French methods. 



I.— HUNTING 



We will first take hunting, which is represented in France by a 

 number of packs used for the stag, the roedeer, the boar, the wolf, the 

 hare, the fox, and the otter. 



