PREFACE 
IX 
I have known, but, if I touch lightly upon others, 
I do not profess in such cases to appear as an 
authority. On the other hand, all that I describe 
may be depended upon, as the result of a long life’s 
observation in many portions of the world, during 
which, although devoted since my boyhood to the 
rifle, I have never hunted without a keen sense of 
enjoyment in studying the habits of the animals 
pursued. 
In treating the wide subject comprised in the 
title, I shall commence the first chapter by a retro¬ 
spect of the arms necessary for the destruction of 
wild animals, and exhibit the progress that has 
been developed since the commencement of my own 
experience nearly fifty years ago. 
SAM. W. BAKER. 
