Natural History 385 



THE rOX's HUNT 



For a mile or two I followed my fox. Nothing happened. 

 I got only the thought that his life was largely made up 

 of nose investigation and unfavorable reports from the 

 committee in charge. Then we came to a long, sloping 

 hollow. The fox trotted down this, and near its lower 

 end he got a nose report of importance for he had swung 

 to the right and gone slowly — so said the short steps — 

 zigzagging up the wind. Within fifteen feet, the tacks 

 in the course shortened from four or five feet to nothing, 

 and ended in a small hole in a bank. From this the 

 fox had pulled out a common, harmless garter-snake, 

 torpid, curled up there doubtless to sleep away the winter. 

 The fox chopped the snake across the spine with his 

 powerful meat-cutters, killed it thus, dropped it on 

 the snow, and then, without eating a morsel of it as 

 far as I could see, he went on with his hunt. (Illustra- 

 tion II A.) 



Why he should kill a creature that he could not eat 

 I could not understand. I thought that ferocious sort of 

 vice was limited to man and weasels, but clearly the fox 

 was guilty of the human crime. 



The dotted guide led me now, with many halts and 

 devious turns, across a great marsh that had doubtless 

 furnished many a fattened mouse in other days, but now 

 the snow and ice forbade the hunt. On the far end the 

 country was open in places, with clumps of timber, and into 

 this, from the open marsh, had blown a great bank of 

 soft and drifted snow. 



Manitoban winters are not noted for their smiling 

 geniality or profusion of outdoor flowers. Frost and snow 

 are sure to come early and continue till spring. The 

 thermometer may be for weeks about zero point. It 



