240 ' PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
ready with a neigh to welcome his master’s re-appearance. 
Though to revisit these secluded haunts, to re-enact these 
scenes may not be my lot, why should they not be the 
reader’s? If you are a proficient in the art, you will make 
such a bag of snipe as an English sportsman scarcely ever 
dreamed of. Go, by all means—do not stop to hesitate— 
and I will guarantee you an amount of sport that will in- 
duce many a future return. 
Those gentlemen who live in the cities that surround 
these sporting localities are well aware of the excellence of 
the shooting at this season upon the prairies, and make up 
large parties to have a week or so at the Wilson snipe. In 
the course of a day’s shooting on the Grand Prairie, I have 
met visitors from Louisville, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, 
marching like companies in skirmishing order, and keep- 
ing up a regular fusillade. But so great is the extent of 
hunting-ground, and so numerous the game, that in each 
day, over the same beat, no visible diminution can be ob- 
served. We do not mean to say that no English sports- 
man ever made a trial of these Western haunts, but we are 
thoroughly impressed that the excellence of these grounds 
is far from as widely known as it deserves; and that many 
persons, possessed both with means and inclination, are un- 
aware that within thirty-six hours’ journey of New York 
they can have such snipe-shooting as is to be enjoyed in no 
other portion of the globe. 
As to all the haunts of snipe, the visitors must go well 
prepared with a good supply of water-proof boots, for the 
walking is always damp, sometimes wet. Also, a good stock 
of flannel clothing will be found indispensable; for at this 
season the weather is frequently so variable, that although 
noon may be oppressively warm, sunset and the hour of the 
tramp home, especially if your feet are wet, may be found 
sufficiently cold to chill the warmest blood. 
