THE FOX AS A CAPTIVE 141 



But if the disease is already devastating whole 

 districts of a number of countries, what is to be done ? 

 Then only the most stringent methods will avail. 

 All the foxes within the infected area must be killed, 

 the natural earths be broken up, and artificial earths 

 picked to pieces and re-made. If for any reason 

 this is not practicable, then the following method 

 of fumigation is effectual. I once tried it, and I 

 believe with success, in the case of an earth which 

 the owner was unwilling to have disturbed. The 

 method was, I think, published in the ' Field ' many 

 years ago, but I take the recipe, as I used it, from a 

 useful book of sportsman's notes kept now for many 

 years, into which I copied it. 



Two iron dishes should be procured and placed 

 one on the top of the other. In the upper one, put 

 common carbolic, and in the lower a red-hot heater 

 (such as a washerwoman uses in box irons). Put the 

 apparatus into the mouth of the earth, and fill up 

 the mouth carefully with clods. The vapour seems 

 to disinfect the earth, and does not cause foxes to 

 abandon it altogether. Two cautions are requisite : 

 first, that we should be quite sure that there is no 

 fox in the earth ; and secondly, that the person 

 using the apparatus must be careful not to inhale 

 the fumes. 



