386 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



' No. 1 (the man with the fuse) lights one of his 

 6-in. lengths at the lantern he carries, and at once 

 shoves it flaming and fizzing as far as he can reach 

 down a hole on the upwind side of a burrow. 



' No. 2 (the man with the spade) then instantly 

 claps a spadeful or two of soil over the mouth of the 

 hole in which the fuse is spluttering (it will not go 

 out), and thus closes it up so as to send the fumes and 

 smoke of the burning fuse into the burrow among the 

 rabbits. 



' No. 3 (the man with the paper and bottle) now 

 holds one of his pieces of paper against the mouth of 

 the bottle and shakes some of the spirits of tar on 

 the paper ; he then lays this piece of paper just over 

 the top of the closed-up hole in which the fuse was 

 inserted, and pins it close to the ground with one of 

 his small crooked twigs (fig. 76).* 



'The paper should be placed so that a rabbit 

 would be obliged to move it to scratch home into the 

 hole it guards, which he will not do, if the weather is 

 fine, for at all events three days, or till the odour of 

 the tar is washed away by rain.' 



Treat all the holes you can find in similar fashion, 

 and those of a large burrow as rapidly one after the 

 other as possible, so that the fumes of the fuse may not 



* Among rocks or bushes it is sometimes more convenient to first 

 peg the paper down over a hole, and afterwards to smear it with the 

 spirits of tar by means of a feather dipped in the bottle. 



