GAME LAWS ABROAD. 283 



It is no uncommon thing for large hunting-parties to 

 come together for the destruction of bears, wolves, and 

 lynxes infesting the districts of Yermland and Norrland, 

 and which become a source of annoyance and even danger 

 to the scanty population of those northern provinces. 



Bears, indeed, are not frequently killed except on such 

 occasions, and the reward offered by the Government is in 

 these cases not given, the personal danger incurred being so 

 much lessened. 



Wolves, however, in severe winters, approach the large 

 towns in search of food, and the sums paid for their capture 

 are often considerable. 



HOLLAND. 



The right of shooting, coursing, fishing, or any other 

 kind of sport r is attached in this country exclusively to the 

 ownership of the land ; the game is looked on as a natural 

 production of the land, in the same way that the fish is 

 regarded as a natural production of the water, the heather 

 of the heath, or the tree of the forest. Where the land 

 belongs to the private individual, the game which is on it 

 is private property ; and where the land is the property of 

 the State, to the State belongs also the game upon it. And 

 in like manner, as it is in the power of the landowner to let 

 out his property to another to be cultivated, while he reserves 

 to himself or concedes to a third party the right to cut the 

 timber, so he is at liberty also to introduce clauses into the 

 lease reserving the right of shooting the game himself or 

 leasing the shooting to another. 



The principle that game is the natural property of the 

 owner of the soil is so thoroughly recognized that the legisla- 

 ture has practically decided that any alienation of the one 

 from the other is an unnatural one ; and, in cases where such 

 alienation has occurred, has given to the proprietor the right 

 of shooting, even though in direct opposition to a written 

 covenant. 



