A NXIO US FOR BLA VK FOX. 1 85 



that the black and red fox are entitled to be regarded as 

 representatives of different species. Nor has the red fox 

 belied his ancestry or deteriorated by his emigration. The 

 keen and persevering fox -hunters of Virginia, Kentucky, 

 Tennessee, Carolina, and Georgia, give him the credit of 

 being the most lasting and difficult animal to run down 

 that the forests produce. From the natural differences be- 

 tween England and America, fox-hunting is not only a very 

 dissimilarly conducted sport, but in the latter associated 

 with more labor and hardship. The woods are so immense 

 that it generally results in cover-hunting from start to fin- 

 ish ; consequently slower hounds require to be used, and 

 every advantage of Pug taken. At dawn the field assem- 

 ble, so as to catch their quarry with a full stomach, and it 

 is no uncommon thing for the sun to have reached the west- 

 ern horizon, and the hunters to be thirty miles from home 

 ere the death wo-whoop be sounded. 



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

 of these beauties during my boyish residence on the Amer- 

 ican 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, during that visit, had I the fortune to 

 almost realize 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 gather- 

 ed into shocks. My companion was a little half-bred ter- 

 rier, who had endeared himself 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 survey ; for deer are fond of corn, so are bears, as 

 well as all the small varieties of game. I had not remained 

 thus hidden for many minutes when what I had taken for 



