68 DEER-STALKING 



salmon is equal to the supreme happiness of stand- 

 ing over a splendid royal which has been the object 

 of your ambition to secure not only during that 

 particular day but perhaps for weeks previously. 

 Fishermen will hardly dispute that on a good day, 

 when fish are really taking, you pull them out of the 

 water as a matter of course, and your chief thought 

 is how to land each quickly so as to be ready for 

 another. In fishing too (I allude to it in a whisper) 

 there is occasionally a spirit of let us call it rivalry 

 which can hardly be said to yield the highest form of 

 pleasure. Be this as it may, I cannot believe that 

 the enjoyment derived from the landing of any 

 number of salmon can equal in intensity that which 

 the deer-stalker experiences when, after hours of con- 

 tinuous excitement and toil, he is at last rewarded 

 with a well-deserved success. 



It is somewhat difficult to apply this test to fox- 

 hunting, but I think it will be admitted by those who 

 love both sports that a ride home in the dark, on a 

 Highland pony under the circumstances just de- 

 scribed, is accompanied with pleasanter feelings and 

 less sense of discomfort than the return on a tired 

 hunter after the best run of the season. 



But, it may be urged by the advocates of the 

 superiority of other sports, if the pleasure of success- 



