A SENTIMENTALIST ON FOXES 61 



below the summit. Those, too, who walked on the 

 sands beneath the cliff sometimes saw his tracks 

 the footprints of a three-legged fox. Doubtless he 

 had modified his way of life, and subsisted partly 

 on small crabs and anything eatable the sea cast 

 up on the beach, and for the rest on voles and 

 other small deer obtainable near the cliff. At all 

 events he was never met with at any distance 

 from the sea, and was in no danger from the Hunt, 

 as he was always close to his fortress in the pre- 

 cipitous cliff. 



One day a farmer, the tenant of the land at 

 that spot, who was out with his gun and walking 

 quickly on the narrow path in the larch wood 

 close to the cliff, looking out for rabbits, came face 

 to face with the three-legged fox. He stopped 

 short, and so did the fox, and the gun was brought 

 to the shoulder and the finger to the trigger, for it 

 is a fact that foxes are shot in England by farmers 

 when they are too numerous, and in any case here 

 was a useless animal for hunting purposes, since he 

 had but three legs. But before the finger touched 

 the trigger, it came into the man's mind that this 

 animal had done him no harm, and he said, " Why 

 should I kill him ? No, I'll let him keep his life," 

 and so the fox escaped again. 



More was heard from time to time about the 

 three-legged fox, and that went on until quite 

 recently about four years ago, I was told. If we 

 may suppose the fox to have been two or three 

 years old when caught in a trap, and that he 



