Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1899-02-02
HUNTING RABBITS.
Sport Abounds When Snow Is Light
and Air Is Keen.

sport AOOunQS w mem SHOW Is
and Air Is Keen.
A rabbit hunt is thing Of yells and
shouts and baying Of hounds and wild
excitement. About five hounds and
eur dog, four boys and man and
light snow on the ground are the usual
outfit. On the ''crick' there are lot
Of brush piles scattered about and is
any amount of cover and brush and
hiding places for the game. The hounds
are put in and in about five minutes
there is a grand hullabaloo and deep
bay from one of the old hounds, fol-
lowed by the excited s.yap' of the cur
dog, and the game is afoot. Very much
afoot, for he is covering the ground
with long leaps and endeavoring to put
as much space as possible between him
and his pursuers. 1t is not a very long
chase The rabbit turns, lodges and
finally nears where the man with the
shotgun is standing. There is sharp
''bang" as the right-hand barrel is dis
charged and the rabbit keels over and
is grabbed by one of the boys just be-
fore the foremost hound reaches the
spot.
The forces now begin offensive opera
tons. The cur dog is sent into the
brush heaps and the boys climb up on
top of the brush and thrash around,
stamping on the limbs and making as
much noise as possible. The cur
squeezes around in the maze of brush
and pretty soon the rabbits begin to
move. The first gun is fired by the
boy with the musket, who has stayed
with the dogs. 1t is an awful roar and
it misses the rabbit. But an officious
hound who happens to be close by
grabs the rabbit and the boy slides to
the ground and snatches it from the
hound. Then he 'shollers'' triumphant
ly, Il got him!'
Then he getsson another pile of brush
and starts to tramp around again.
Meantime the hounds are nervously
trying to make themselves small
enough to get under the brush piles,
but with poor success. 1t is the cur
dogs inning and he is making the most
of it. His eyes are swapping with eX-
gy. Every hair on his back bristles
with eagerness and his chief ambition
is to catch just one rabbit all by him.
self There are hurried slides under
the brush, quick plunges and muf1ed
barks, and the rabbits dodge the cur
dog and dart out from under the brush
heaps, only to be met by the accommo-
dating hounds or a blast from mus
ket, and if they escape all these there
is still the gantlet Of the outer guard to
pass. The hounds are jumping around
among the brush piles, and whenever
they nip a rabbit as it is driven out by
the cur there is squeal and a muffied
groWl from the hound and then a yell
from the nearest boy. But the hounds
do not worry the rabbit after he is
dead; they drop him and wait until he
is transferred to somebody's pocket.
After the clearing has been thorough
~ overlauled there is counting up to
see the result, and late in the after
noon the party will be seen travelling
slowly home, all Of them, dogs, boys
and man, thoroughly tired out. But
over their shoulders and in their peck
cts are rabbits, as many as they can
carry, and they are all serenely salts
fed with the hunt. The boy whose
musket went off accidentally does not
say anything about it, for fear it might
be urged against his carrying a gun at
future hunts.
Rabbits adapt their habits to the To-
cality in which they are raised, and this
action on their part makes hunting
them a question of geography, to a GER