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THE HILL.

ENGRAVED BY W. BACKSHELL, FROM A PAINTING BY A. cooper, r.a.

Our subject is quite in season. When grouse or blackcock shooting, the sportsman will now and then come across the delicate roebuck, who succumbs to a charge of shot, and goes to bag with other small game. If we shook this bag out, we might cull from it grouse, duck, plover, and snipe, all common enough on the Highland moor, with the roe and black game as the especial spoil of the woody districts. The Laird appears to have had a very good day of it; and little Jessie should bob him a curtsey, if only in due acknowledgment of his prowess.

The roebuck is a very harmless animal, compared with the more majestic stag. He is famed for none of those forest jousts; is seldom in anything like good condition-in fact, is nearly always poor-and is consequently an object of no great or especial ambition of the stalker. However, there are certain instructions associated with this branch of sport, which we sum up from the brothers Stuart's famous work on the deer-forest :

"For roe-stalking in woods two guns are equally valuable, but one should be a smooth double gun for buck shot, and the other an ordinary double rifle; for in thick cover the deer often jump up three or four together close to the hunter, while frequently in open woods they are only seen between the boles of the trees at the distance of a hundred yards. Both guns should be carried by the stalker, for no gilly or keeper should be allowed to follow within treble that distance, as there is every probability of his cracking sticks' just as you are coming up to a buck. In thick wood the rifle should be slung, and the smooth gun carried in the hand, for the close bolting shots. But the contrary practice should be used among open trees, where, most likely, the roe will be first seen at a distance. If the ground is not too bushy, or if intersected by glades and free banks, immediately after giving the buck-shot, the hunter should unsling the rifle and drop on his knee, so as to have a good view under the boughs, for some of the roe will often stop within a hundred yards, on the top of the bank, or at the edge of the glade, and stand for some moments looking back over their shoulder, when the rifle will be in good time. In this manner we have sometimes killed three roe from the same spot, and upon one occasion had even better fortune. And, again :

"For roe-shooting, the smooth gun should never be loaded with any other shot than double B. There are many cover-sportsmen who per sist in using smaller numbers, because they are excellent snap shots, and, by the murdering force of a Purdie, sometimes kill bucks by a close point-blank discharge in the head or neck; but they do not acknowledge how many fur jackets they have only dusted at thirty and forty yards, and how many good roe sent away to die in 'pots' and thickets a week afterwards. When in full winter coat, small shot fired at long distances-especially if it strikes with the 'lie' of the hair is turned by the close stiff thatch of the pile like hail, and the fur may be seen beaten out like a clap of dust, but the roe goes off as if untouched; and should he have suffered, it is merely spoiling his

Wow from the ill

laid on' before the distance at which a

dinner without improving your own. But if well shoulder, BB rarely fails to kill or disable at any hunter would fire. The only objection made to its use is, that its size diminishes its number of pellets for long ranges, but this only applies to the small-bored pheasant and partridge pop-guns: the barrels of a roe gun should never be less than a musket gauge, and with thick metal, and a heavy breech; each charge will then carry seventy pellets, and kill with certainty at fifty yards."

WHAT IS A SOUND HORSE?

The following is from the Mark Lane Express report of the recent agricultural meeting at Londonderry :

Captain Croker, the late secretary to the society, has quite a Yorkshireman's-and it may be an Irishman's-taste for hog's-flesh and horseflesh. He acted, as he often has before, as one of the judges of pigs; and it is mainly through his exertions that the show of horses has evinced so marked an advancement. At Waterford, he got together the strongest show of thorough-bred stallions we ever saw, and yet the first ever brought under the sanction of the society. But, unfortunately, the judges and their medical adviser could not agree; and what in the first instance looked like a very proper decision, was spoilt by what, we are still afraid, was undue interference. By no means discouraged, the Captain issued this well-considered prologue to the Londonderry meeting: "The decisions of the judges in the special prize class, Waterford show, have caused a good deal of dissension, and, I regret to add, dissatisfaction throughout Ireland. I have been endeavouring to set matters to-rights, for the future guidance of the judges of horses at our shows. With this view, I have placed myself in communication with my brother-secretaries of England and Scotland, receiving from them such suggestions as they thought fit to make. I have also consulted many large breeders of horses in this country, and some of our best veterinarians. With all before me, I have arrived at the conclusion that no agricultural society ought to give a prize to any animal which had a constitutional ailment. I have ascertained, beyond all doubt, that the number of unsound horses, and especially roarers, has increased to a frightful extent. Two and three-year-old colts, confirmed roarers, are now constantly met with at our fairs; and, on tracing their pedigree, they are proved to be the produce of unsound sires-generally cast-offs from England. As a national society, we are bound to check this great evil by every means in our power. Formerly, in this country, a roarer was hardly ever to be met with. Our council has named a committee of eleven gentlemen to revise our premium-sheet for the coming year. This committee will meet on Thursday next, when I purpose to submit the following rules, which are partly taken from the Royal Society of England and the Yorkshire Society: The judges are especially instructed not to award a prize to any unsound horse. Lameness or other injury produced by accidental causes not to be considered unsoundness; but, in all cases, horses having constitu

tional unsoundness must at once be rejected. A veterinary surgeon will be in the show-yard, but not in direct attendance on the judges, in order that, whenever any doubt should arise as to the existence of disease in those animals which they may consider worthy of a prize or commendation, the veterinary surgeon may be called upon to give his opinion thereon.' I hope to be able to continue the large_prizes we gave in the special prize class, Waterford show; but I have experienced a sad check by the unfortunate selection of the Dey of Algiers as the recipient of the first thereat. The veterinary is strictly enjoined to offer no opinion whatever as to the merits of the horses, unless specially required to do so by the judges."

But Captain Croker has done even more than this. On his retirement from office, he has left a parting present to the society, in the shape of a pair of claret-jugs, for the owner of the best thorough-bred stallion. These are exquisitely modelled in silver, from gold and agate vases brought to this country from Pompeii by the late Lord Lorton. There is only one disagreeable condition attached to their presentation. So handsome do they look, and so useful will they be for friends to drink the winner's health in, that we hardly know how a man will ever make up his mind to part with them again. However, it is another challenge plate; and if Mr. Fowler has not another Caledon ready for next season, we are afraid the claret-cup will not be brewed any longer in Lancashire. It will be a difficult thing, moreover, to find another Caledon; for he is the finest horse there has been seen in a show-yard for many a day. The most extraordinary thing is that, being so near, he was not shown at Chesterthe more so, as he has already taken some twenty prizes in that district. He could not have failed of being first there. He is a remarkably fine handsome horse, standing sixteen hands high, with great power and liberty; as active as a pony, and as strong as a house. It is seldom a better-topped horse has been seen; and, indeed, had he been quite as true below, he would be worth any money. As it is, there were sundry offers to retain him in Ireland-after all, his native country. Caledon was bred by Lord Caledon's farrier, and is by a well-known horse, Simoom, out of Fortress. He was never trained, but presented by his noble namesake, when a yearling, to Mr. Thompson, a Yorkshire gentleman, on whose decease he passed into Mr. Fowler's hands. Curiously enough, the second prize horse was quite worthy of him-certainly with a more bloodlike look, and as neat as a picture. He had, however, neither the size nor the power of the other, although got by a big coarse horse. But he is by far the best-looking Cotherstone we have met with. Here, however, the interest ceased. Of the ten or twelve others entered, about half of them were not sent; and the judges significantly refused to award the third prize. There was the delicate Windischgratz, scarcely thickened a bit since taken out of work; the slacklimbed De Ruyter; and two or three terribly coarse animals, the owner of one of which fired up tremendously when he was assured such a horse could not be thorough-bred. Still, Caledon and Steppingstone made quite a show of it themselves; and rarely has there been so good a first and second.

* Fortress is yet better known as the dam of Pyrrhus the First and Old England.-EDITOR.