were good for seventy-five yards on 
either hand, making the distance cov- 
eied a total of three hundred yards. 
We were not destined to put reynard’s 
hide on the stretcher quite so quickly, 
however, for although we had the wind 
in our favor and we kept absolutely 
quiet, reynard was not taking 1 any 
chances, and wheeled when within fifty 
yards of the road and was 
soon a full half-mile away 
again to the southwest. The 
scent appeared to be good as 
the dogs kept up great speed, 
but although they must have 
worried reynard quite a bit, 
he seemed inclined to stick to the 
swamp on that side of the road which 
is very thick. From my experience in 
hunting foxes, I have found that they 
will stay in a piece of thick swamp for 
quite a while if they do not get scent 
of man, but as soon as they do, they 
run straight away for a distance of 
from one to three miles, and then 
repeat the performance of circling 
around, running along trunks of trees 
that have been up-rooted by the wind 
and trying in numerous ways to throw 
the dogs off their trail. 
The heavy clouds that had been 
overhead since daylight now began to 
drop their burden and bid fair to 
make a pair of wet hunters of us. 
Taking advantage of the fact that 
reynard was at a good distance from 
the road, I went down to Fred and 
proposed that I go in and trust to luck 
to get a shot in the thick of the swamp. 
If not successful in this, I explained, 
reynard would in all probability get 
my scent and immediately cross the 
road. Fred thought the plan a good 
one, and as the rain steadily became 
heavier, we felt more inclined to force 
1 eynard s hand than if the weather 
had been more reasonable. So I left 
the road and made my way into the 
swamp; I may say here that I made 
no mistake when I said it was thick. 
It was chiefly composed of cedar and 
All who love the voice of a hound and the 
stern struggle of a Northern Red dog fox race 
will appreciate this simply told tale. 
tamarack with fallen trees and limbs 
laying in every fashion. It took me 
twenty minutes to cover a distance of 
about seventy-five yards. All this time 
the dogs could be heard, only faintly, 
away to the southwest. But the con¬ 
tinuous baying told plainly, in dog lan¬ 
guage, that they were hurrying their 
prey. I traveled around looking for a 
slight opening in the dense growth that 
would be in the vicinity of where rey¬ 
nard had been in the habit of turning 
when at this end of the swamp. Hav¬ 
ing selected a spot, I sat down on a 
log quietly to await reynard’s return. 
He did not appear to be in any great 
hurry, however, and the rain was be¬ 
ginning to find its way in around the 
collar of my coat. However, he who 
hunts fox must sally forth with a 
goodly amount of patience in his 
makeup. Finally, I heard the dogs a 
little plainer and it was not long be¬ 
fore my heart was making about 
double time as the dogs were not more 
than one hundred yards away, but 
handicapped, as I was, by the dense 
growth, I could see nothing. Another 
moment and they sheared off to the 
northeast and passed me in a direct 
lead to where I supposed Fred to be 
waiting on the road. 
Momentarily, I expected to hear a 
shot that would spell downfall for 
Mr. Fox. But no shot was heard; 
something evidently had gone 
wrong, for the dogs were well 
over the road judging by their 
receding voices. I began to 
make my way toward the road 
when I heard two long blasts 
from Fred’s whistle. I may 
say here that it is my custom to carry 
a whistle, and I have arranged a code 
of signals so we can communicate 
much farther and easier than by 
shouting; whistles are not as alarm¬ 
ing to the game as the sound of voices. 
Two longs which I heard meant in our 
code, come together.” I answered, 
“all right,” with two short blasts and 
pioceeded toward the road. Arriving 
at the road I learned that the fox had 
crossed the road not ten yards from 
where Fred had been waiting. But 
while the dogs were at the other end 
of the swamp, Fred had caught sight 
of a white object moving about, just in 
from the road, which turned out to be 
a large weasel, or as they are called, 
ermine. 
He immediately left the road, intend¬ 
ing to go just a few yards into the 
swamp and get a shot at it, but al¬ 
though he caught sight of it again 
several times, he could not act quickly 
enough to get a shot. While he was 
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