FERRETS AND RABBITS AGAIN. 405 



hindrance to you, but you must take care not 

 to have it any longer because, in ferreting 

 stumps or roots of trees, the animal is likely 

 to get hung up round some projecting stump 

 or root if any length should be trailing behind 

 him, and it is then very difficult to discover 

 his exact whereabouts. In large earths, over- 

 grown with roots of trees, this is by no means 

 an easy matter. When ferreting with a line 

 you have, of course, only to follow up the line, 

 but in all cases you should disturb the earths 

 as little as possible. 



A keeper once told me that he saw a ferret 

 fasten on to a man's hand ; he and others 

 tried all they knew to choke the animal off, 

 but in vain. At last the man, who was an 

 underkeeper, had to hold out his hand as far 

 as he could, with the ferret dangling at the 

 end, and then the keeper simply shot it off 

 his hand. 



"What!" said I. You couldn't make the 

 ferret let go ? If I had been there I would 

 have made him let go much quicker than 

 he laid hold." 



