SPORT IN TEXAS. 5 



shot gun and a brace of pointers, can kill quail and 

 grouse to his heart's content. In the winter, the 

 swamps, lakes, and rivers swarm with almost every 

 kind of wild fowl, ducks, geese, swans, and two or 

 three varieties of cranes. Should he be of a more 

 ambitious disposition, and wish to try his skill on 

 game of a larger size, bears and peccaries are always 

 to be found in the cane-brakes and thickets ; and if 

 even this should fail to satisfy him, the great bison 

 is to be found on the western prairies, where he can 

 have adventures to his heart's content. 



I once passed nearly a twelvemonth in the forest 

 with no companions but my dogs, and no means 

 of subsistence but the produce of my gun. My 

 good thick blanket was my only bed, and a rude hut 

 of branches piled and woven together, my home. It 

 was only when powder and lead grew scarce that 

 I returned to the settlements; and on once more 

 reaching a spot where civilization had made some 

 progress, I felt about as awkward as a Maori woman 

 in a ball-room dress, and as fearful of doing wrong 

 as a schoolboy may be on finding himself at his 

 school gate after the holidays. 



But no one need live this solitary hermit -like ex- 

 istence from choice, for in every little town it is 

 easy enough to find two, three, or half-a-dozen 

 comrades who desire no greater enjoyment than a 

 month or two months of camp hunting ; and, with- 



