Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY,

PAUL'S WORK, CANONGATE.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

SADLER ON THE Balance of Food and NUMBERS OF ANIMATED NATURE, 109 TO CORRESPONDENTS,

136

EDINBURGH:

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, NO. 45, GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH; AND T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON.

To whom Communications (post paid) may be addressed.

SOLD ALSO BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURCH.

[blocks in formation]

ALL men who are eloquent on the cruelty of hunting, beat their wives. That is a general rule, admitting of no exceptions. There is another. All men who stammer on the cruelty of hunting, are beaten by their wives. Fortunately these classes are not numerous, otherwise we should be a cock-pecked and hen-pecked generation. Humanity, in the long run, rejoices in pursuing unto the death, on foot or horseback, lions, tigers, bears, wolves, hyenas, foxes, marts, and hares. Were you to talk to himself of the cruelty of killing a lion, he would stun you with a roar of derision-to a tiger, his stripes would wax blacker and brighter in contempt -to a bear, he would hug you to his heart, as the choicest of all imaginable ninnies—to a wolf, he would suspect you of being a man-trapto a hyena, he would laugh in your face-to a fox, he would give you such a brush as you never had in your life—to a mart, he would look so sweet upon you that you would be scented like a milliner-to a hare, he would prick up his ears in vain emulation of the length of your own, and wonder to see an ass among the Bipeds. They all perfectly well know that they were made to be huntedthat they are provided, to fit them for that end, with certain organs and members, which otherwise would be, comparatively speaking, of little or no use, and would get so rusty, that

ere long the creatures would be almost incapable of locomotion, and would absolutely die of fat-the most cruel death in all the catalogue. Therefore, let Sir John Brute and Jerry Sneak henceforth-on the subject of hunting-belong to the dumb animals.

Lion-hunting and tiger-hunting are merely cat-hunting on a considerably larger scale;-wolf-hunting and foxhunting are the same modified by climate;—of mart and hare-hunting, more hereafter;-but of bear-hunting it is now our intention to speak, under the guidance and direction of our sporting friend Mr Lloyd, who was born under Ursa Major, and does credit to the celestial sign of Bruin.

The passion of the chase is strong in Mr Lloyd's constitution. It seems for years to have been his ruling passion, and to have made him a perfect model of perpetual motion. But like all other passions, ruling or ruled, it can be thrown off ad libitum by a strong-bodied, strong-minded man. All of them, we hold, are in our own power, and at our own disposal. True, that while they are at their acme they hurry us away like whirlwinds. But then they are whirlwinds of our own raising, and we are still the magicians who can either allay the storm, or leap out of it, down upon the soft calm green of tranquillity and peace. Take ambition. You

* Field Sports of the North of Europe, comprised in a Personal Narrative of a Residence in Sweden and Norway, in the Years 1827-8. By L. Lloyd, Esq. London. Colburn and Bentley, 1830. Two Vols.

VOL. XXVII. NO. CLXVIII.

A

« ПредишнаНапред »