HUNTING. The manner of conducting field sports has varied considerably at dif ferent periods. Formerly the term hunting signified the pursuit and destruction of wild animals whose presence was dangerous, or whose flesh was calculated for food. Now the word is often applied to chasing animals with hounds for sport or exercise. Xenophon tells us in a treatise on dogs and hunting that the art originated with Apollo and Diana, and asserts that the chase forms the best soldiers in the world; that it hab ituates men to cold, heat, and fatigue; that it kindles courage, elevates the soul, and invigorates the body: that it retards the effects of age, and renders the senses more acute; and finally that the pleasure which it affords is a sovereign remedy against all mental uneasiness. Aristotle wrote a treatise on field sports by order of Alexander the great, and Polybius relates that Maximus restored discipline in the Roman legions by often exercising them in hunting. Oppian distinguished himself by his poems on hunting, and several of the finest similes of Homer arc taken from hounds in chase. The Humans at one time discouraged hunting among the upper orders of society, fear ing it might become a passion which would divert them from their essential duties. But, aware of its beneficial effects in forming the people for war. they substituted the cruel and degrading exhibitions of animals destroying each other in an amphitheater. Yet we find many of their emperors encouraging hunting, and some of their best writers, such as Virgil and Horace, extolling it. The ancient Germans and Gauls were excellent hunters, and the ancient Britons had that ardent passion for the chase has always been characteristic of England. The Anglo-Norman and early English monarchs were devoted to the art, and a code of laws relating to it was formed by one of the Welsh princes in the 12th century. We hear of fox-hounds first in the time of Edward I., and during the reign of his successor hunting in England may be said to have been co something like a science. Edward III. was a great stag-hunter, and even while in war with France, there were attached to his army 60 couples of stag-hounds and an equal number of hare-hounds. It does not appear that the fox was much in esteem for the chase by any of the Anglo-Norman sportsmen, and Somerville, in his famous poem, The Chase, does not treat him with the respect which lie pays to the stag or the hare. Hunting, however, advanced steadily in all its
branches, and flourished greatly during the last century owing to the encouragement given it by George III.
The higher kinds of game animals arc now so scarce in the United States east of the Missouri river, that sportsmen can have little real hunting until they cross the Rocky mountains. In the vast area lying between that chain and the Pacific ocean may be found nearly every species of game indigenous to the North American continent. Among the latter may be mentioned the grizzly and black bears, the mountain sheep and goat, several species of deer, the moose, cougars, wolves, foxes, and many smaller quadrupeds. Of the entire area Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington Territory are by far the best hunting grounds, as they possess all the necessary ele ments of soil and climate, and their populaliou is yet small. Sporting dogs of all kinds can be utilized in every quarter of the country, but the most valuable are pointers, set ters, and hounds. The greyhound can be employed in coursing hares and antelopes; the deerhound for following on open ground the elk, the moose, and the white-tailed deer; the terrier for routing foxes and badgers from their burrows; the beagle, harrier, foxhound, and other hounds are useful in certain kinds of hunting. The weapons required for the chase, in the west, are a rifle, a breech-loading shotgun, a heavy revol ver, and a good hunting knife.
The hunter can estimate the size of the animals which lie is trailing, by the spread of the feet on the ground; their weight, by the depth of the impression made; the speed at which they move, by the intervals between the paces, and the length of time since they passed over a spot by the freshness of the tracks. If an animal be seriously wounded, it may be detected by drops of blood, or by the irregular and straddling gait. All game quadrupeds should be hunted up wind, seldom across it, and never down it, as scent is to them what sight is to birds and feeling to human beings.