HUNTING LORE. 269 



hours, took the Hounds off at night " ; 

 " found a Fox and run it 6 hours and then 

 lost " ; " Went a hunting above Darrells . . . 

 found a fox by two Dogs but lost it upon join- 

 ing the Pack." In the season of 1772-73 

 Washington hunted eighteen days and killed 

 nine foxes ; and though there were seasons 

 when he was out much more often, this pro- 

 portion of kills to runs was if anything above 

 the average. At the beginning of 1768 he 

 met with a series of blank days which might 

 well have daunted a less patient and persever- 

 ing hunter. In January and the early part of 

 February he was out nine times without get- 

 ting a thing ; but his diary does not contain 

 a word of disappointment or surprise, each 

 successive piece of ill-luck being entered with- 

 out comment, even when one day he met 

 some more fortunate friends " who had just 

 catched 2 foxes. " At last, on February 1 2th, 

 he himself " catched two foxes " ; the six or 

 eight gentlemen of the neighborhood who 

 made up the field all went home with him 

 to Mt. Vernon, to dine and pass the night, and 

 in the hunt of the following day they repeated 

 the feat of a double score. In the next seven 

 days' hunting he killed four times. 



The runs of course varied greatly in length ; 

 on one day he " found a bitch fox at Piney 

 Branch and killed it in an hour " ; on another 

 he " killed a Dog fox after having him on 

 foot three hours & hard running an hour and a 

 qr." ; and on yet another he " catched a fox with 

 a bobd Tail & cut ears after 7 hours chase in 



