2 SHORT STALKS 



forgotten. People congratulated the victors and condoled 

 with the victims, but nobody pitied the High Sheriff, so 

 he consoled himself in his own way. On the following 

 morning I packed up my camping outfit, and, accompanied 

 by two kindred spirits, fled to the land of the free. To a 

 busy man the scope for this sort of thing is limited. If 

 six weeks be the outside of his tether, dreams of Arctic 

 bears or Ovis Poll are unattainable and unreal. Time and 

 distance have to be considered ; but Scandinavia, the 

 Alps, the Pyrenees, the IMediterranean Islands, can be 

 reached within six days even in their remoter parts, and 

 open out possiljilities of elk, reindeer, chamois, bear, ibex, 

 and deer of several kinds. Of all these I possessed 

 memories and trophies, and l^esides, the season for them 

 was over. P)Ut there is another land of forests wdiich I 

 had for long marked dow^n in my agenda, and gathered 

 stray scraps of information about, as a squirrel hoards 

 his acorns — no doubt, with all the pleasures of anticipa- 

 tion. This was the island of Sardinia, where dwell many 

 wild animals — red deer, fallow deer, Iwar, ducks, and 

 longbills innumerable ; but, chief of all, in the wildest 

 parts, the curly-horned mouflon, desired by many sports- 

 men, seriously hunted by few, and obtained by very few. 



The old numbers of the Field had been ransacked, 

 travel books searched, H.B.M.'s consuls resident on the 

 island written to, still the information about these parti- 

 cular animals was meagre and contradictory. The authori- 

 ties all differed as to what was the close season for the 

 mouflun, but they all concurred in saying that it didn't 

 much matter. They were also unanimous in declaring 

 that the method of hunting them was by driving, whereas 



