8 INTRODUCTION. 
that when we are gone those that come after us may wander where 
we have wandered, may camp where we have camped, and use the 
gun or the rod as well or better than we have used it, knowing that 
they will go back to their fellows and the cares of life better in mind 
and body for the experience. 
As Isaac Walton tells us, it was one of the qualifications that 
Xenophon bestowed on Cyrus, ‘‘ that he was a hunter of wild beasts,” 
and the love of the chase seems to be as strong with many of us 
now as then. As we grow older, however, most of us lose some- 
thing of our desire to kill game. Our love for the woods seems to 
increase rather than diminish and we see many new and beautiful 
things in the wilderness which we did not see when we were younger ; 
but we shrink from killing a bird or mammal unless we actually need 
it for food or study. 
Many a flock of quail or ducks I have watched feeding without 
disturbing them, and many a deer I have stalked, and perhaps photo- 
graphed, and then watched it from my concealment until, discover- 
ing my presence, it bounded away unharmed. It should be a rule 
with every true sportsman never to kill more game than can be 
properly used. Of course, with a number of men in camp, what 
appears to be a large bag is often not more than is actually needed 
for food. On several occasions I have made large bags when some 
of the men in camp were going to spend a holiday with their families 
and wished to take home some birds; but the wanton and useless 
slaughter of game cannot be too strongly condemned. 
