THE BADGER, AND HOW HE IS HUNTED. 63 



of teeth. Another dog, which was bitten in a hind 

 foot, never put it to the ground again. 



It was obvious that this was not the way to pro- 

 ceed, and the question arose : How could we fairly 

 hunt the badger ? The solution was not very difficult ; 

 as the badger was never abroad by day, he must be 

 hunted by night. 



I will pass over our preliminary experiments, with 

 their attendant failures and successes, and give an 

 account of one of our best evening's badger-hunting. 



Soon after, eleven o'clock we left the smoking- 

 room, not without some regrets for its comfortable 

 arm-chairs and cheerful fire, and retiring to our rooms, 

 proceeded to exchange our comfortable smoking-suits 

 for breeches, leggings, and shooting-boots. It was 

 a lovely October night when we left the house, and 

 the frost was fairly sharp. A brisk walk soon brought 

 us to the wood where we meant to hunt, just as a 

 clear autumn moon began to appear over the hills. 

 Here we found the keeper and his assistant, with 

 three couple of dachshunds. The keeper now left us, 

 but I propose to follow him in spirit, so as to 

 explain his proceedings. His first step was to go 

 direct to the earth which he knew the badgers were 

 then using, proceeding as quietly as possible. Here 

 he took from his pocket a stout bag made of sacking, 

 and closing at the mouth with a double line, on the 

 principle of an ordinary sponge-bag. This bag was 

 pushed into the hole so that its mouth coincided with 

 that of the earth, the strings being attached to pegs 

 firmly driven into the earth. A couple of thin pegs 



