IN THE FAR WEST. 21 



to make their list large during- the trip or the season. Tlicv 

 may be able to defy the laws of nature for a while, but I have 

 found they were the first to succumb in the long-run. 



To be a successful Nimrod one must be patient, cautious, 

 and persevering ; mere dash is of little avail except under 

 favourable circumstances, and they are not common in hunting 

 large wild animals. The best hunters that I have known 

 were exceedingly keen in sight and hearing, and were close 

 observers of the ground and the haunts and habits of animals ; 

 not that they possessed these qualities in any extraordinary 

 degree naturally, but that their constant exercise developed 

 them to the fullest extent. These men were not by any 

 means the ideals of the novelist tall and thin, of an iron 

 frame and with muscles like steel springs ; nor were they so 

 taciturn that one could not get a sentence out of them except 

 by a great deal of persuasion. Neither were they always 

 indulging in hyperbole when they did speak, or execrating the 

 whole red race; many of them were, on the contrary, simple, 

 and unpretentious men, who were as sociable as men could be, 

 and who bore no sort of resemblance either in form, manner, 

 language, or expression, to Leatherstockings or any of his ilk. 

 They could not hit an acorn many miles away, nor did they 

 perform heroic feats in hugging a grizzly bear to death or 

 killing every animal they fired at, yet they could give an 

 excellent account of themselves in a hunt lasting a week or 

 two, or even a whole season. 



Another thing may be asserted, namely, that the best shots 

 at game may be of no account in firing at a target. Both 

 systems are entirely different, for he who may be an excellent 

 long-range rifleman may be of no use in the field, and is 

 liable to be beaten by a man who does not know the first prin- 

 ciples, in theory, of rifle-shooting, and cannot tell a Vernier 

 sight from a sardine box. To be a successful hunter requires 

 practice more than anything else, but, of course, a naturally 

 good eye and the bump of calculation are valuable adjuncts to 

 practice; yet I am free to say that any ordinary person can 

 become a successful hunter in time, provided he has the 

 ordinary five senses and sound limbs, if he has practice. 



