THE HARE AND HER TROD 8i 



hours. Mr. L'Aigle Cole mentions a hairbreadth 

 escape which happened to a poacher, one of whose 

 snares the keeper had found with a hare in it, and hid 

 up close by to catch the poacher when he came for 

 it. ' Luckily for the poacher, he came earlier than 

 usual, and had already taken several hares from his 

 other snares, when, nearing this one, he noticed a 

 fresh footprint on a molehill, and instantly crawled 

 with the greatest caution through the underwood ; 

 when to his horror he almost knocked against the 

 keeper, who, however, was so sound asleep that the 

 poacher not only took the hare from his snare, but 

 re-set it for pure impudence, and got safely away.' ^ 



The drawback to the use of snares is, that the 

 poacher can set these engines all round a field in a 

 very short time. The man from Penicuik told me 

 that on a certain occasion he set fifty-seven snares in 

 a single field. Unfortunately for him, he was caught 

 in the act of visiting them, and soon found his wrists 

 fettered with a bracelet of his own contrivance. He 

 had prided himself on the stoutness of his gear, and 

 he learnt to rue it. It would be easy to enlarge upon 

 poaching usages to a much greater extent than I 

 have done yet ; but enough has been said to put the 

 game preserver on his mettle. If he can employ a 



' The Nineteenth Century, 1893, p. 474. 



G 



