Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-06-17
POOR RRER FOX
How Did He Ever Manage to Get Into
the Trees Crotch?

Henry Jarvis, a young farmer liv-
ing several miles east of Port Leyden,
n. Y, had an odd experience with a
fox the other day. He had observed
that one seemed to have a runway
along small tributary to Black river,
and determined one morning after a
light fall of snow on the crust to 60 on
the trail and shoot him or dig him out,
according to the place where he over
took him.
Jarvis had no dog, but started off
with pick and shovel, and light
rifle over his shoulder. The trail led
him about three miles up the creek,
becoming fresher as Jarvis tramped
along. and then the fox himself was
seen ambling about, sticking his nose
into holes about old stumps and other
places where mice might be found,
| with an occasional look into the top of
a spruce, as if he expected to see a
| partridge there With considerable
| pains Jarvis crept up within rife shot.
| ct which time the fox was right on the
| edge of thick bunch of small spruces,
on one side of which was large birch
| with branches springing out about
twelve or fifteen feet above the snow.
AS Jarvis brought his rifle to his
shoulder the click of the raising ham,
mer was heard by the fox. 1t stopped
| instantly, and then Jarvis fired The
fox jumped and half turned around,
and then as Jarvis fired again disap-
| peared in the thicket.
Pumping a new cartridge into his
rifle Jarvis hurried up. There was a
t1eck of blood on the snow where the
fox had stood at the second fire, and
beyond that the marks of two long
jumps that led direct to the big birch.
| There the trail ended.
On examining the tree Jarvis found
hole in it through which he could
! just push his gloved fist. 1t looked
| like pretty small hole for full-grown
fox to crawl through, and Jarvis could
not see any other place into which the
fox could have gone, and so he thrust
| the pick-handle into the hole to keep
the fox in while he should 90 off for an
ak. Then he leaned the rifle, with the
shovel and the pick against the tree,
| and walked away toward the home of
Farmer Demmler. Ten rods or so
from the three he stopped and turned
around to look at it, thinking how in
credible it seemed that the fox should
have leaped up through that hole. The
instant his gaze fell upon the tree he
saw the fox calmly watching him from
a comfortable seat in the second crotch
from the snow. Jarvis asserts that
the animal was at least fifteen feet
above the level of the snow.
The man was now, to use his own
| term, Gin pickle" because he had
left his rifle leaning against the tree.
However. the beast was sure to run
| away if left alone, and it would do no
more if the man returned. So Jarvis
| walked back as unconcerned as posi-
| BILE, and the fox remained in the crotch
| until Jarvis knocked it out with shot
from his rifle. An examination show
| ed that one of the bullets fired at it
had just barked its tail.
No one doubts the story of Jarvis,
but what people around here would
like to know is whether foxes climb
| trees or whether this one, spurred by
the bullets fired at it, made the extra
ordinary leap from the snow to a
crotch some fifteen feet above It's level.