Night- Watches in 1895 169 



Eight nights during which I have killed on the 

 spot, or found the animals dead the next morning. 



Eight successful days out of thirty-seven ! That 

 was sufficient, however, for I killed animals which 

 amply repaid me for my trouble. But what feelings 

 of discouragement I have had also, what moments of 

 real anguish ! How many times have I said to myself 

 on returning, tired out by my night of waiting, during 

 which fever was my only visitor, " I shall return 

 there no more!" Yet I was there again in the evening. 

 There is a host of sensations in the life of a nocturnal 

 hunter which would need a more skilful pen than 

 mine to describe them adequately. Some day I may 

 try to relate them in detail, because all the incidents 

 have been carefully noted down. For the time being 

 I wish to relate a few only of the night-watches of 

 the year 1895. The reader, assuredly, will find it 

 more natural my relating to him some of the eight 

 nights which were crowned with success rather than the 

 twenty-nine others which were without result. That 

 is what I thought. I cannot too often repeat that, in 

 the course of this book, I have designedly avoided 

 telling him of all the inconveniences, checks, and dis- 

 appointments with which I have met, because it 

 would have been no longer a book of sport, but 

 one of adventures which did not come off. I 

 lay stress on this point : that, though I save the 

 reader from the weariness of them, I have had, 

 like everybody else, twice as many failures as 

 successes. 



My first nights in 1895 slipped by in a chasse- 



