Page:The Hare.djvu/86

64 to think lightly of family duties, takes him into bad company, and frequently leaves him a dipsomaniac. But so long as game-dealers are allowed to buy poached hares and other game without inquiry as to how the game was obtained, so long the crime of poaching is sure to flourish. Our legislation is more to blame than the much-abused poacher. If we made poaching unprofitable, it would be given up by the majority of rascals who at present exist by stealing game. Whether the suppression of poaching would be an unmixed advantage is open to doubt. I am afraid that, if the poacher ceased from troubling the hares, he would be forced to earn his living by other dubious practices. A working-man can rarely obtain employment if his character is bad. But this is somewhat of a digression from the subject.

The most primitive form of killing a hare, or any other small quadruped, is to fell it with a stone, a clod of earth, or such other missile as may happen to be within reach. The savage finds by experience that it is best to use a weapon upon which he is sure he can rely. It may be very crude in form, rudely fashioned withal; but if he knows its exact weight, and how to throw it, depend upon it he will give a good account of its use. I have not come across any present-day poachers who habitually use a throw-stick, though