120 THE POLECAT CHLOROFORMED. CHAP. VIL 



stench he emitted during his struggles I The very 

 jackdaws in the upper stories of the castle began to 

 caw ! Still I kept my hold. But I could not pre- 

 vent his yelling at the top of his voice. Although I 

 gripped and squeezed with all my might and main, 

 I could not choke him. 



" Then I bethought me of another way of dealing 

 with the brute. I had in my pocket about an ounce 

 of chloroform, which I used for capturing insects. I 

 took the bottle out, undid the cork, and thrust the 

 ounce of chloroform down the fumart's throat. It 

 acted' as a sleeping draught. He gradually lessened 

 his struggles. Then I laid him down upon a stone, 

 and, pressing the iron heel of my boot upon his neck, 

 I dislocated his spine, and he struggled no more. I 

 was quite exhausted when the struggle was over. 

 The fight must have lasted nearly two hours. It was 

 the most terrible encounter that I ever had with an 

 animal of his class. My hands were very much 

 bitten and scratched ; and they long continued in- 

 flamed and sore. But the prey I had captured was 

 well worth the struggle. He was a large and powerful 

 animal a male; and I desired to have him as a 

 match for a female which I had captured some time 

 before. He was all the more valuable, as I suc- 

 ceeded in taking him without the slightest injury to 

 his skin."* 



* An encounter between an eagle and a polecat in the forest 

 of Glen Avon, Banffshire, is thus described in the New Statistical 



