142 Badgers. [Sess. ‘ 
day he is one of my favourite authors. His anecdotes about 
badgers keenly whetted my appetite, and I resolved at least — 
to try and see one. Ina deep ravine between the estates of 
Ladykirk and Milnegraden were, I had often heard, a number 
of badger holes, and I started one day to try and discover 
them. This was a simple matter, as they were easily found in 
consequence of the many tons of earth which they had drawn 
out, and which indicated that the burrows were of great depth. 
Though a considerable distance apart, the burrows connected 
inside. This I found out in subsequent years, as on putting 
a ferret into one of the holes a couple of foxes bolted twenty- 
five yards from where the ferret was put in. It was in the 
winter months, and I presume if badgers were inside they 
were sleeping. I have frequently bolted foxes and cats with 
ferrets, but never badgers; neither have I ever lost a ferret in 
a badger’s hole. It has been frequently asserted that foxes 
and badgers will not remain in the same earth. This I know 
to be at variance with fact, though I cannot speak minutely 
of the domestic arrangements of fox and badger. 
I was exceedingly interested in seeing the big burrows of 
the badgers and the prints of their feet on the sandy bank. 
A popular notion prevailed at that time among country-folks 
that the legs of badgers were shorter on one side than on the 
other—a provision of nature for enabling them to run along 
the steep hillsides. Observing their tracks both up and down 
the glen from the “earth,” I began to wonder how one would 
manage if the side with the short legs was down hill. I care- 
fully measured the length of the limbs of the first badger I 
saw killed, and needless to say from that date I consigned the 
belief to the region of romance. Though then only ten years 
of age, I was continually asking the keeper about a badger- 
hunt, and he at last consented to have one, on condition that 
I was to sit and “sack” the badger. I am certain I never 
would have engaged in a badger-hunt had I known the treat- 
ment to which I was to be subjected. The two keepers 
arranged to play a trick and frighten me, so that I would 
never trouble them again with badger-hunting. I have too 
vivid a recollection of that night ever to forget it. The moon 
was about its first quarter, and went down a little after mid- 
night. We were to start before eleven o’clock. I was to be 
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