284 The Wilderness Hunter 



Fox hunting, but started nothing" ; "Went a hunt- 

 ing, but catched nothing" ; "found nothing'* ; "found 

 a Fox and lost it." Often failure followed long 

 and hard runs: "Started a Fox, run him four 

 hours, took the Hounds off at night" ; "found a Fox 

 and run it 6 hours and then lost" ; "Went a hunting 

 above Darrells . . . found a fox by two dogs but 

 lost it upon joining the Pack." In the season of 

 1772-73 Washington hunted eighteen days and killed 

 nine foxes; and though there were seasons when 

 he was out much more often, this proportion of 

 kills to runs was if anything above the average. 

 At the beginning of 1768 he met with a series of 

 blank days which might well have daunted a less 

 patient and persevering hunter. In January and the 

 early part of February he was out nine times with- 

 out getting a thing; but this diary does not contain 

 a word of disappointment or surprise, each succes- 

 sive piece of ill luck being entered without comment, 

 even when one day he met some more fortunate 

 friends "who had just catched 2 foxes." At last, 

 on February I2th, he himself "catched two foxes"; 

 the six or eight gentlemen of the neighborhood who 

 made up the field all went home with him to Mt. 

 Vernon, to dine and pass the night, and in the hunt 

 of the following day they repeated the feat of a 

 double score. In the next seven days' hunting he 

 killed four times. 



