A small and inexpensive glass is
as useful for this purpose as a large one; but there is a considerable
difference between the clearness of different opera-glasses.
OTHER MEANS OF CAPTURING GAME.
General Remarks.--A trapper will never succeed, unless he thoroughly
enters into the habits of life and mind of wild animals. He must ever
bear in mind how suspicious they are; how quickly their eye is caught by
unusual traces; and, lastly, how strong and enduring a taint is left by
the human touch. Our own senses do not make us aware of what it is
disagreeable enough to acknowledge, that the whole species of man yields
a powerful and wide-spreading emanation, that is utterly disgusting and
repulsive to every animal in its wild state. It requires some experience
to realise this fact: a man must frequently have watched the heads of a
herd of far distant animals, tossed up in alarm the moment that they
catch his wind; he must have observed the tracks of animals--how, when
they crossed his path of the preceding day, the beast that made the
tracks has stopped, scrutinised, and shunned it--before he can believe
what a Yahoo he is among the brute creation. No cleanliness of the
individual seems to diminish this remarkable odour: indeed, the more
civilised the man, the more subtle does it appear to be; the touch of a
game-keeper scares less than that of the master, and the touch of a negro
or bushman less than that of a traveller from Europe.
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