WHAT IT COSTS. 21 



ball or hooks a fish when no necessity demands 

 it. Such ruthless destruction of life is slaughter, — 

 coarse, cruel, unjustifiable butchery. Palliate it 

 who may, practise it who can, it is just that and 

 nothing short. To sum up what I have thus far 

 written, I say to all brother sportsmen, that, all 

 things considered, the sporting, both with rifle and 

 rod, in the North AVoods is good, — good enough 

 to satisfy any reasonable desire. In this, please 

 remember that I refer to the wilderness proper, 

 and not to the lumbered and inhabited and there- 

 fore over-hunted borders of it. I have known 

 parties to take board at North Elba, or Malone, or 

 Luzerne, and yet insist that they " had been into 

 the Adirondacks." 



WHAT IT COSTS. 



This I know to some is a matter of no interest 

 at all, but to others, among whom, unfortunately, 

 the writer must number himseK, it is a matter 

 of vital importance. The committee on "ways 

 and means " in our " house " is the most laborious 

 of all, and the six years a little woman has held 

 the chairmanship of it .has made her exceedingly 

 cautious and conservative. Some very interest- 

 ing debates occur before this committee, and no 

 demur on the part of the defeated party, as I have 



