^04 tHOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ^ 



Let your huntfman try all aroimd, and let bhii 

 "be perfectly fatisiied that the fox is not gone on, 

 before you try an earth ; for want of this precau- 

 tion, I dug three hours to a tsrrijr that lay all the 

 time at a rabbit : there was another circumftaiice 

 which I am not likely to forget, — " that I had 

 '' twenty miles to rule home afterwards^ A tox 

 fometimes runs over an earth, and does not go 

 into it ; he fometimes goes in and does not flay ; 

 he may find it too liot, and may not like the com- 

 pany that he meets with there: I make no doubt 

 that he has good reafons for every thing he docs, 

 though we arc not always acquainted with 

 them. 



Iluntfmcn, when tliey get near the fox, will 

 ■fometimes put a hound in to draw him. This is 

 however a cruel operation, and feldom anfwera 

 any other purpofc; "than to occalion tlic dog a bad 

 bite, the foxes head generally being towards him ; 

 betides, a few minutes digging will render it un- 

 neceffary. If you let the fox firfl feizc your 

 whip, the hound will draw him more readily.* 



You fhould not encourage badgers in your 

 woods; they make flrong earths, which will be ex- 



* You may draw a fox by fixing a piece of whipcord madd 

 into a noofe to the end of a ftick j which, wlien the fox fcizes, 

 you may draw him out by. 



penlive 



