CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 45 



An attempt is made in the present chapter 

 to give some account of the habits and appear- 

 ance of some of the most interesting, preference 

 being given to those which the sportsman is 

 most likely to encounter, either accidentally 

 or of set purpose, in the wilds of India, Africa, 

 Canada and other regions to which Englishmen 

 commonly emigrate. This exile to foreign 

 parts is usually looked upon as the penalty of 

 the younger sons ; yet those who have travelled 

 far and wide, shooting or fishing, or merely 

 keeping their eyes and ears open to gather 

 what impressions they may, find themselves 

 pitying not so much the younger sons com- 

 pelled to see the world as the eldest son 

 privileged to stay at home. 



The first chapter of this book endeavoured 

 to give some sort of picture of the wild places, 

 no easy task to one whose pen fails when 

 called upon to reproduce the wonders he has 

 seen. We have now to consider the creatures 

 which inhabit these solitudes, and we must, 

 before all, try to keep a sense of proportion, 

 for when we lose that we lose also all hold 

 on the realities of life. Goldsmith, the poet, 

 once dared to twit the great Dr. Johnson by 

 saying that, if he had tried to write a dialogue 

 between little fishes, he would have made them 

 talk like whales. In a book that finds some- 

 thing to say of both, every attempt has been 



