"American sporting, however, is certainly wilder, in so much as it is
pursued on much wilder ground; in so much as we have a greater variety
of game--and in so much as we have many more snap shots, and fewer fair
dead points.
"Harder it is, I grant; for it is all, with scarcely an exception,
followed in very thick and heavy covert--covert to which the thickest
woods I ever saw in England are but as open ground. Moreover, the woods
are so very large that the gun must be close up with the dog; and
consequently the shots must, half of them, be fired in attitudes most
awkward, and in ground which would, I think, at home, be generally
styled impracticable; thirdly, all the summer shooting here is made with
the leaf on--with these thick tangled matted swamps clad in the thickest
foliage.
"Your dogs must beat within twenty yards at farthest, and when they
stand you are aware of the fact rather by ceasing to hear their motion,
than by seeing them at point; I am satisfied that of six pointed shots
in summer shooting, three at the least must be treated as snap shots!
Many birds must be shot at--and many are killed--which are never seen
at all, till they are bagged; and many men here will kill three out of
four summer woodcock, day in and day out, where an English sportsman,
however crack a shot he might be, would give the thing up in despair in
half an hour.
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