240 PRAI1UE AND FOREST. 



ready with a neigh to welcome his master's re-appearance. 

 Though to revisit these secluded haunts, to re-enact these 

 scenes may not be my lot, why should they not be the 

 reader's ? If you are a proficient in the art, you will make 

 such a bag of snipe as an English sportsman scarcely ever 

 dreamed of. Go, by all means do not stop to hesitate 

 and I will guarantee you an amount of sport that will in- 

 duce many a future return. 



Those gentlemen who live in the cities that surround 

 these sporting localities are well aware of the excellence of 

 the shooting at this season upon the prairies, and make up 

 large parties to have a week or so at the Wilson snipe. In 

 the course of a day's shooting on the Grand Prairie, I have 

 met visitors from Louisville, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, 

 marching like companies in skirmishing order, and keep- 

 ing up a regular fusillade. But so great is the extent of 

 hunting-ground, and so numerous the game, that in each 

 day, over the same beat, no visible diminution can be ob- 

 served. We do not mean to say that no English sports- 

 man ever made a trial of these Western haunts, but we are 

 thoroughly impressed that the excellence of these grounds 

 is far from as widely known as it deserves ; and that many 

 persons, possessed both with means and inclination, are un- 

 aware that within thirty-six hours' journey of New York 

 they can have such snipe-shooting as is to be enjoyed in no 

 other portion of the globe. 



As to all the haunts of snipe, the visitors must go well 

 prepared with a good supply of water-proof boots, for the 

 walking is always damp, sometimes wet. Also, a good stock 

 of flannel clothing will be found indispensable ; for at this 

 season the weather is frequently so variable, that although 

 noon may be oppressively warm, sunset and the hour of the 

 tramp home, especially if your feet are wet, may be found 

 sufficiently cold to chill the warmest blood. 



