202 NARRATIVES. 



member it with thankfulness. I will conclude my history of 

 the expedition with a dissertation by J. H. N. on the 



" MIRAGES OF THE SPORTING WORLD. 



" The visions of far-off cities, palaces, gardens, fountains, and 

 lakes that beguile the tired and thirsty pilgrims of the desert 

 are probably but tame and rare illusions compared with those 

 that lure hunters, fishermen, and trappers, or the myriads of 

 men and boys all over the world that would be such, on and 

 on, year after year, in the pursuit of boundless successes that 

 are always looming in the distance, but are never reached. 

 For one, I confess that ever since I was ten years old I have 

 been seeking from time to time, in all directions and by many 

 wearisome excursions, for that paradise of sportsmen where 

 one can bag the nicest game in any quantities " as fast as he 

 can load and fire," or where he can catch bass or trout of any 

 desirable size " as fast as he can put in his hook ; " but I have 

 never found it ! The exact spot has been pointed out again 

 and again by very credible informants ; but always, when I 

 have reached it, there has been some mistake about it. Either 

 I had come a few days too soon, or a few days too late ; or 

 the desired region was a few miles further on, or off to the 

 right or left, or even back of where I started ; or somebody 

 had got in before me, and had just disappeared with the load 

 of luck that I expected ; or the weather was wrong ; or the 

 time of day was wrong ; or I had not the right kind of tools 

 and tackle. Thus in one way or another, as a sportsman, I 

 have never got much beyond moderate luck, with hard work 

 and hard fare ; and I have come to the conclusion that the 

 sporting world is full of mirages, that ought to be exposed and 

 expounded for the benefit of rising generations. 



J 4 1 do not believe that my indifferent success is owing alto- 

 gether to individual bad luck or bad management, but that it 

 is an average sample of general experience. I hear the same 

 story from multitudes of amateurs (told of course in their 

 lucid intervals), and even from old Nimrods. John P. Hutch- 

 ins said that he "never got through a trapping campaign 

 without wondering at himself that he should be such a fool as 



