FOX HUNTING IN AMERICA. 259 



to reach his home ; the dog is even now within a foot of his 

 brush. 



One more desperate leap, and with a sudden snappish 

 growl he turns upon his pursuer, and endeavors to defend 

 himself with his sharp teeth. For a moment he resists the 

 dog, but is almost instantly overcome. He is not killed, how- 

 ever, in the first onset ; both dog and fox are so fatigued that 

 they now sit on their haunches, facing each other, resting, 

 panting, their tongues hanging out, and the foam from their 

 lips dropping on the snow. 



After fiercely eyeing each other for awhile, both become 

 impatient the former to seize his prey, the other to escape. 

 At the first leap of the fox the dog seizes him ; with renewed 

 vigor he seizes him by the throat, and does not loose his hold 

 until the snow is stained with blood, and the fox lies rumpled, 

 draggled, with blood-shot eye, and frothy, open mouth, a 

 mangled carcase on the ground. 



The hunter soon comes up : he has made several short cuts, 

 guided by the baying of his hound; and striking the deep 

 trail in the snow again, at a point much nearer the scene of 

 the death-struggle, he hurries toward the place where the last 

 cry was heard, and pushes forward in a half run until he 

 meets his dog, which, on hearing his master approach, gene- 

 rally advances towards him, and leads the way to the place 

 where he has achieved his victory. 



There are yet more unfair modes of taking this gallant 

 animal, known at the North, the very mention of which would 

 make the warm blood of a genuine fox-hunter boil over with 

 contemptuous indignation. 



The fox is pursued over the snow by one of the scrubby 

 mongrels above mentioned, until he is fairly earthed, when 

 the sportsman, as he is facetiously called, comes up with 

 spade and pick-axe on his shoulder, and after cooly surveying 

 the ground, prepares to dig him out. His labor at this season 

 is worth something less than a dollar a day, and if he sue- 



