Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by American Museum of Natural History Library.
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Transcription
162
we returned to the horses.
As we slowly picked our way
among the trees I had ample time
to stand & to realize my disappointment.
It was born in me once again that
a narrow margin there is between
complete [illegible] success & failure (or shooting).
It's
no other sport as the line so clearly drawn.
A thud bright heart after a fine or climb, or a
quick-drawn breath will turn the right
draws breath & me ride a shot to bullet
with, often for perhaps a lack of honor.
The jamming of a cartridge only when
the game is wounded or a shot far hurled
taken ends the day in disappointment.
In the case of the bear had escaped,
[illegible] [illegible]
or body's
animal remained the gratification second
danger, I should have had it stuck behind
me on the saddle & my heart would have
been filled with joy instead of black
dejection.
And strangely enough, not in the shots
which I miss or the animals which I do
not get that I remember longest. I
can see that bear as clearly now with
every detail of its surroundings, as
she it were before me in a photograph.
Eight years ago I missed a fine goat
in Korea as I stood upon a rock presenting