POACHERS AND POACHING. 41 



CHAPTER II. 



i 



POACHERS AND POACHING. 



I DO not intend to touch in any way on the game- 

 laws, or to give the very barest description of the 

 methods employed by those who poach and capture 

 the creatures without the leave of others. It is a 

 great pity that those who have explained, for the 

 benefit of a too credulous public, how the thing is 

 done, have not been capable enough to prevent its 

 recurrence. In the present chapter I only offer a 

 few sketches from life of some so - called delin- 

 quents I have known. 



" I am on his track," one guardian of the covers 

 observed to me, as he saw a man walking on the 

 highroad ; " I shall have him to a dead certainty." 

 But he spoke prematurely, for the individual pointed 



