134 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



sues. For it is by this knowledge, either gained through great 

 labor in the field, or acquired from the writings and associations 

 of those who have devoted the leisure of years to this healthful 

 recreation, that one shooter is seen to excel another in the style 

 of hunting and bagging his game. 



Many individuals, from a lack of personal observation on their 

 part or the want of a suitable preceptor to instruct them in the 

 field, will continue to hunt a lifetime in an awkward or hap-hazard 

 way, without ever bringing into requisition any of those many 

 little manoeuvres and field-stratagems so familiar to the crafty old 

 sportsman, and which he oftentimes selfishly endeavors to conceal 

 from the knowledge of the rising generation of shooters, fearing 

 lest his teaching might raise up around him too many youthful 

 aspirants, ever ready to pluck from his brow the hard-earned 

 laurels of a long apprenticeship to the tricks of the field. If any 

 of our readers, however, should only aspire to the office of pot- 

 hunter, we would advise him to put this book aside, as we can 

 assure him that he will not be interested in many of its details, 

 except, perhaps, those portions of it devoted to the trapping and 

 netting of game, or the different methods to be pursued by the 

 shooter when anxious, from some particular circumstance, to make 

 a large count. But, even then, a mind such as this selfish cha- 

 racter possesses is often too obtuse to understand or practise the 

 principles laid down for the guidance of a gentleman sportsman. 



Of all the disagreeable characters that a well-bred sportsman is 

 likely to be thrown in contact with, that of a pot-hunter is the 

 most disgusting, the most selfish, the most unmanly, the most 

 heartless ; a being who alone can pride himself in a ruthless desire 

 to destroy, and, as it were, to lay waste, all animated nature, by 

 every and any means within his grasp, without regard to etiquette, 

 humanity, law, or even the common decencies of life. Such are 

 the real feelings of a pot-hunter, in the true sense of the word ; 

 and his boasted motto, Fill the lag, and damn the means, should 

 be chalked upon his craven back in well-defined characters, as a 

 warning to all young sportsmen to shun his company and detest 



