THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
which are weak, and its multitude of poachers. Bands of ruffians constantly 
visit private estates and do not hesitate to fire at the keepers if they are 
obstructed. 
The old Belgian stag still exists in the Grown forest of Freyr, where it is 
preserved, but those of the Ardennes are the descendants of a German herd 
imported some forty years ago. 
Fallow deer have also been imported and are acclimatized on private 
commons and in the Royal domains. 
Roe are plentiful and are best hunted by means of a couple of slow 
hunting dogs. Most of them are, however, shot in the annual battues. Boar 
are also shot by being driven by a line of beaters, the old method of driving 
out with boarhounds being now discontinued. Woodcock are now much 
scarcer than in former times, but there is good snipe shooting near the 
Dutch frontier and on the lowlands of Flanders. The neat little hazel-hen 
occurs along the course of the Semoy in Luxemberg and in the forest near 
the French frontier, towards Montherme and Longwy. Capercaillie are 
also found in the Hautes -Ardennes. 
FRANCE. In France the best sport is afforded by the numerous packs 
of hounds that hunt the stag, the roe, the boar, the wolf, the fox, the hare 
and the otter, and if we carefully study French methods of the chase with 
horse and hound we shall find that our friends across the Channel know quite 
as much, if not more, than we do of this method of the chase. The most 
popular hunts are those which chase the stag in the neighbourhood of 
Paris, at Chantilly, Villers Cotterets, Rambouillet, Compiegne and Fon- 
tainebleau. There is a beautiful pack of the old French breed of hounds 
that hunts the roebuck in the Landes of Bordeaux. It is known as 
the Virelade pack and is the property of Baron de Carayon La 
Tour. 
There is an excellent pack of foxhounds at Pau which is conducted after 
the English fashion. 
Before the days of the railway no European country was better stocked 
with game, but now, with the aid of a licence, any person is allowed to 
shoot on all lands when the sporting rights are not reserved by the owner. 
Owing to the land system France is now for the most part split up into 
thousands of small holdings, so that it is only the very large landowners 
who can reserve shooting. Practically the whole of the south and central 
France are overrun by a multitude of shooters, and efforts to stop them 
have always proved abortive. Game is slaughtered throughout the whole 
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