THOUGHTS UPON HUNTIL^G. 353 



Ksaudart, ^ivhich, as a French author informs us, an army 

 of twenty thousand French chasseurs went out in vain 

 to kilL 



If my time In writing to you has not been so well 

 employed as it might have been, you at least will not find 

 that fault with it : nor shall I repent of having employed 

 it in this manner, unless it were more certain than it is, 

 that I should have employed it Metier. It is true, these 

 Letters are longer than I first intended they should be : 

 they would have been shorter, could I have bestowed more 

 time upon them. — Some technical words have crept in 

 imperceptibly, and with them, some expressions better 

 suited to the field than to the closet : nor is it neces- 

 sary, perhaps, that a sportsman, when he is writing to a 

 sportsman, should make excuses for them. In some of 

 my Letters you have found great variety of matter : 

 the variety of questions contained in yours, made it some- 

 times unavoidable. I know that there must be some tauto- 

 logy. It is scarcely possible to remember all that has been 

 said in former Letters ; let that difficulty, if you please, 

 excuse the fault. I fear there may be some contradidions 

 for the same reason ; and there may be. many exceptions. 



