St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1884-04-19
Some Fox Stories.

| oioticS WltnOul numDcr are told o.
the tricks by which foxes elude pursuit
Not long ago Salem farmer found one
in an apple tree in a distant lot The
snow was deep, and the fox. tired by
the hounds, had leaped on a wall and
thence into the tree crutch. The dog:
came up, and finding the end of the
trail, gave up the chase. without look
ing into the tree, and went home Al
sight of the farmer the animal bounded
away through the snow to the woods,
Col. Seth Lathrop, the Salem hunter,
came to the end of a fox trail at the
brink of a beautiful pool in a wooded
hollow on Dodge Hill, in that town. II
was October, and brown leaves fiecked
the surface of the water. His hounds
were completely at fault They smelled
of the fresh tracks that ended at the
margin, and after running around to
the other shore returned, baying their
disappointment. The Colonel was
puzzled. He suspected that the fox
had committed suicide At length, as
his quick eye searched every part of the
little pond, he noticed in the middle a
leaf that was a triile rounder and darker
than Its neighbors, and about it an al
most imperceptible tremor Of the water.
He raised his gun and fired. The
Colonel said afterward that "that fox
| came outer that ere pond hole leetle
| quicker n L ever seen anything move
afore except creased lightnin'." 1t had
swan into the pool. and with its feet on
the bottom, and its nose protruding
among the yellow leaves sufficiently to
breathe, it expected to deceive the
hounds into abandoning the chase
When hard pressed fox has been seen
by woodsmen to use great ingenuity to
delay or throw the hounds off the scent.
! Norwich observer, while hidden in
the woods last fall, saw one come pant
ing to wall, spring upon it, run along
four or five rods, leap off, run on one
side forty feet, and then spring over
and continue about the same distance
on the other side. This course was
kept up for two hundred rods, when the
fox plunged into swamp Just as the
hounds came in sight. They were de-
layed over half an hour in ferreting out
and regaining the trail. The fox had
got two or three miles away. Knowing
the habit of foxes in following a regular
route homeward, an old farmer of
Franklin, 4 town north of this city.
played a sharp trick on his neighbors
winter or two ago. He had observed
that the ''home rum to certain burrows
of foxes lay along Ayers Gap, about
point of its course, and whenever his
ne; ghborS were out hunting. and the
sounds indicated that the chase was APP
preaching. he took his gun. ran down
to the run, shot the fox and returned
to his home, while the hunters further
down the run waited in vain for the
game. The neighbors did his hunting
for him nearly all winter before they
discovered the trick. He had killed
six foxes in about two months.
1t is now the season for fox-hunting
yarns in all the country groceries in
Eastern Connecticut. Squire Harris. n
once famous fox hunter of Salem. fig
ureS in not few of them. Guess
none o you fellers ever heerd how old
'SIuecr Harris O. Salem shot fox
around Rattlesnake Hill once, did ve?n
inquired an old-time fox hunter, the
other night, as he cooked up his hat
and the snow-water trickled off his cow
hide boots and Kissed and sputtered on
the big belly of the Voluntown base
burner. None of the party of sports
had. WALL he continued. 1.-the ole
'Squeer was a purity good shot in them
days, an allus Civ him credit, tew.
fur purity middlin' fair tal'nts fur lynn.
He tole me this yarn more'n millyun
times, an ez ev'ry time he dished it up
he told it different, l kin say, without
meanin' any disrespect to the 'Sgueer,
part is ficshun an which is open ter
doubt. He gin it tew me Jest ez regular
ez we come together, an he was. ez per-
ticker with ev'ry part on it ez eff it was
ez fresh ez daisy an he he'd jest had
the adventer with the fox, which he'd
been ded then bout twenty-seven years.
1t warn't much of story the fuSt an
second, an even the ELEVENTH time. an
| don't think the 'Squeer tux much
stock in it himself. but ez it grow an
developed it kinder grated onter him,
an wouldn't swear but the ole 'Sgueer
really believed part on it was truth:
though whether he anchored his faith |
to the fust vershun or the New Reyer- |
shun never could find out. l guess |
I'll let We hev it, boys, Jest ez the |
'Squeer gin it to me the millionth an |
fust time arter he he'd spent the best |
part o thirty years polishin' on her up.
He allus begu n in this way:
".Waal, Joe Bailey, did ever tell ye
bout tibet fox adventer o. mine down
round Rattlesnake Hill a week or tew
back seq he.
NO. seq /, 'Squeer, don't think
ye never did / knew it was safe to
say tibet without castin' any reiiecshuns
on my reporta shun fer veracity; fer, ez
| was a-tellin' We. he allus he'd bran
new yarn each time, with a new frame,
m new winder blinds, new cut o
paint, an bran new Mansard roof
under the same ole capshun. So l seq,
No. 'Squeer, don't think We never
lid"
".No, 1 guess 1 never did nuther,'
continered the Squeer, but it was bout
he. thrillin' est adventer ever / come
acrost. I'll spinner fur We. WAL. We
know, I'd ben huntin' foxes purity much
all that week: but they wos the alfred
est runners ever see, an l cudn't get
sight o hide or har on 'em. Nuther
,ud the dorgs. But bimeby, long late
N the AFTERNOON, l got onter one down
round Rattlesnake, an l made up my
mind: .'Blast We, I'll hev ye'' So ez
he fox lit out round the hill an the
lorg arter him, concluded I'd try a
eetle strategy. l Jest jumped, kinder
'pry like, ter one side o the path, and
,huckcd a rifle ball inter the ole
ouskat on tpn n tho dnuhla Re