GERMANY 167 



at a good pace, and jumps out of the water at regular intervals only. 

 Good body shots are alone effective, for the wounded go off at great 

 speed, and when the brain or spine is touched they sink immediately, 

 only to reappear when inflated by 'decomposition. Retrieving is 

 done by two men in a rowing boat. 



In bygone times hunting was as great a pastime as in England 



and France. It died out in the beginning of this century, to be 



revived in the English manner about forty years later. 



Hunting. 

 In old days, princes and large landed magnates 



chased the stag with strong hounds, as may be seen in Ridinger's 

 celebrated engravings, and country gentlemen (the writer's grand- 

 father for instance up to 1830) coursed hares with greyhounds. But 

 the general poverty following the devastations of the wars of the 

 first Napoleon, the increase of corn and turnip growing in comparison 

 to cattle breeding, and the abolition of the sporting privileges of the 

 aristocracy, that rendered all sport most expensive, put a general stop 

 to hunting in Germany. In the fifties, the increasing prosperity, and 

 above all the important influence of hunting on horse breeding, and 

 its value as a test for military rough riding, brought hunting to the 

 fore again, but then the old good breeds of dogs and the trained men 

 were gone. Everything, even to the pink coats and huntsmen, had 

 to be brought from England. Now, a good many packs are kept, 

 but most are of a more or less military character. To understand 

 this the reader must bear in mind that the climate and agriculture 

 in Germany are most unfavourable for hunting. Pastureland is rare ; 



