286 The Wilderness Hunter 



to foxes which treed; one, on the loth, being, "I 

 went a hunting in the Neck and visited the plantn. 

 there found and killed a bitch fox after treeing it 3 

 t. chasg. it abt. 3 hrs.," and the other on the 23d : 

 "Went a hunting after breakfast & found a Fox at 

 muddy hole & killed her (it being a bitch) after a 

 chase of better than two hours and after treeing her 

 twice the last of which times she fell dead out of 

 the Tree after being therein sevl. minutes apparent- 

 ly." In April, 1769, he hunted four days, and on 

 every occasion the fox treed. April 7th, "Dog fox 

 killed, ran an hour & treed twice." April nth, 

 "Went a fox hunting and took a fox alive after 

 running him to a Tree brot him home." April 

 1 2th, "Chased the above fox an hour & 45 minutes 

 when he treed again after which we lost him." 

 April 1 3th, "Killed a dog fox after treeing him in 

 35 minutes." 



Washington continued his fox hunting until, in 

 the spring of 1775, the guns of the minutemen in 

 Massachusetts called him to the command of the 

 Revolutionary soldiery. When the eight weary 

 years of campaigning were over, he said good-by 

 to the war-worn veterans whom he had led through 

 defeat and disaster to ultimate triumph, and became 

 once more a Virginia country gentleman. Then he 

 took up his fox-hunting with as much zest as ever. 

 The entries in his journal are now rather longer, 



