48 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



full stomach., and it is no uncommon thing for the sun 

 to have reached the western horizon and the hunters to 

 be thirty miles from home ere the death whoop is 

 sounded. 



But to the black fox. I had often longed to capture 

 one of these beauties during my boyish residence on the 

 American continent. The price that the pelt would 

 bring was a supply of pocket money that I could see no 

 end to ; but once, and only once, had I the fortune to 

 almost realise my wish. I had been hunting all day by 

 the margin of a distant lake. Tired and unsuccessful, 

 about the hour of sunset I approached a clearing of a 

 few acres in the forest, where Indian corn had been 

 grown and just gathered into shocks. My companion 

 was a little half-bred terrier, who had endeared him- 

 self to me from his sagacity and obedience. As I 

 neared the brush fence which surrounded the opening, 

 with the habitual caution that residents in wild lands 

 learn, I secreted myself behind a stump, and took a 

 careful . surv ey ; for deer are fond of corn, so are bears, 

 as well as all the smaller varieties of game. I had not 

 remained thus hidden for many minutes when what I had 

 taken for a charred stump suddenly became animated, 

 and remarkable were the movements that heralded 

 this change. One more glance told me it was a fox of 

 the long- coveted species ; but what the mischief was he 



