SUMMER SPORT IN NOVA ZEMLA. 63 



the luxuries most sought after and hardest to obtain 

 that, namely, of wild sport. 



Tradition and history alike tell us that the ancient 

 inhabitants of these islands were obliged to wage con- 

 stant war against the denizens of the forests which 

 then overspread the country, not only with the object 

 of providing themselves with food and clothing, but 

 also in self-defence. In this from a sportsman's 

 point of view happy state of things, our forefathers 

 were able to gratify the long-inherited instincts of 

 man the hunter, whilst providing for their other 

 wants. We, their descendants, inheriting all the 

 old wants and a host of others which have sprung 

 up with the advance of civilisation, have in no de- 

 gree lost the old hunting instinct ; but by increasing 

 and multiplying at such a prodigious rate, we have lost 

 the means of satisfying it in our native land. Even 

 where game still runs wild, its pursuit is necessarily 

 hedged in by endless formalities of law and etiquette ; 

 and the result is, that there is an annual and ever- 

 increasing exodus of restless spirits, bent upon grati- 

 fying their hunting instincts in other lands after their 

 own fashion. 



Those who have become accustomed to wild sport 

 abroad find it irksome to conform to the restrictions 

 of modern British sport, and get into what are called 

 loose habits. A case within my own knowledge 

 occurs to me, in which an American, taking part in 

 a grouse -drive on a Yorkshire moor, wounded one 



