221 



HINTS. 



The following observations are such as any one who, 

 with rifle in hand, had been much in the forest or on 

 the mountain, would himself have made over and over 

 again. They consequently are not given as containing 

 new information, for their substance is merely what 

 experience would have taught any other man as well as 

 myself. But they are added here as a hint which may, 

 on occasion, be found of some use to those who have 

 not yet had the opportunity of gaining that experience. 

 I have lost many a good stag, and more than one cha- 

 mois, by non-observance of the little things to which 

 attention is directed in this chapter. I heed them now : 

 I have been taught to do so by the consequences of my 

 neglect of them ; and even to this hour I look back 

 with self-reproach on the chances which, owing to 

 heedlessness or over-haste, I have allowed to escape 

 me. For these chances, like lost hours, are not to be 

 recalled. 



To the true sportsman such untoward events cause a 



