THE FOX. 



I HAVE already spoken of the fox at some length, 

 but it will take a chapter by itself to do half justice 

 to his portrait. 



He furnishes, perhaps, the only instance that can 

 be cited of a fur-bearing animal that not only holds 

 its own, but that actually increases in the face of the 

 means that are used for its extermination. The 

 beaver, for instance, was gone before the earliest 

 settlers could get a sight of him ; and even the mink 

 and marten are now only rarely seen, or not seen at 

 all, in places where they were once abundant. 



But the fox has survived civilization, and in some 

 localities is no doubt more abundant now than in the 

 time of the Revolution. For half a century at least 

 he has been almost the only prize, in the way of fur, 

 that was to be found on our mountains, and he has 

 been hunted and trapped and waylaid, sought for as 

 ame and pursued in enmity, taken by fair means 

 and by foul, and yet there seems not the slightest 

 danger of the species becoming extinct. 



One would think that a single hound in a neigh- 

 borhood, filling the mountains with his bayings, and 

 6 



