The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-26
New England Fox Hunting

The New England and some others OF
the Northern states have a style of fox
| hunting all their sown.e 1t is not the or
| thodox and classic chase of England and
| in less degree of the Southern states
says the Springfield Republican, but
| yields plenty of sportland is INDUCED in
/ by many people, particularly in this Ii
| entity. It is not remarkable for style.
| The hunters do not wear red coats and
| ride bob-tailed, fence jumping norseS,
| and the foxes are killEu with a good old
| shotgun instead of being torn to pieces
| by the hounds, but there are good and
| sufficient reasons for departing from the
| old customs of the aIistocrats of Eng
| land and the South. IN the first plac ,,
| horses couldn't follow the hounds through
| our rugged hills, in the second, there
aren't enough horses of that kind in this
| vicinity to make muchs of hunt. More
| over, the fox houndSufn New England
| cannot ordinarily catch and kill a fox.
And, lastly, the fox hunters of New Eng
land have a right to do as they like, for
a fox is an outlaw, the season is open
lie in wait for him with a shotgun, there
is no good reason why he shouldn't.
Fox hunting has been for many years
a popular sport about Westfeld. The
Western Massachusetts Fox club, whose
headquarters are there, was formed about
twelve years ago at Chester, and now
has a membership of 215, with perhaps
fifty for hounds of various breeds and
degrees of ability. For the annual hunt
sportsmen gather from Boston, Glouces-
ter, Worcester, Hartford, Springfield and
Pittsfield and way stations, and the whole
countryside defers business to the pleas
ure of tramping the mountain with a
shotgun, on the one chance in thousand
of knocking over a fox. The pelts are
now worth about 81 each, but hunter
who has been so fortunate as to- Kill a
fox in one of these annual hunts would
turn up his nose at SIS. Annual hunts
are now held at Landlord, and there is
around here all the time. The Worcester
district has even more hunting, parties
going out every day during the best sea :
son, which is through the fall, though
much all winter.
The first days hunt at 0Westfield this
year was begun in a binding snow storm
uncomfortable for the hunters, put not
particularly bad for the hunting, said the
experts, except that the wind carried
away the noise of the pack and there
was difficulty in keeping track of the
foxes. The hunters were up. before day
Light and congregated at the center Of
the town at 6 o'clock, where they en-
barked in buses and buggies, and were
driven, with the hounds in leash and
filing every corner of the vehicles, to
earlier in the day the hounds are looSed,
the better, for the scent is the fresher:
Most of the dogs were let go in the
fields at the foot or partly UP the rise,
while most of the hunters went on up the
mountain toward the top of the ridge.
There, in the shelter of trees, stone walls,
bushes or whatever else offered, they
prepared to wait for the fox to pass.
Each hunter selects his own position,
which he does in accordance with his
own real or fancied knowledge of the
habits of the fox. And SO before long
the hunters have picketed the ridge as
closely as If they were the outposts of
an army The old hunter is willing to
bide his time and wait patiently hour
after hour, in the confidence that eventu-'
ally the dogs will drive the fox past him.
The novice waits a while, finds his feet
and hands getting terribly cold and his
bottle becoming empty, and hears the
hounds giving tongue ferociously mile
away over the hill, and decides to emf
CRATE, only to find, after trudging long
way, that the chase has doubled around
and that the flying fox and the roaring
pack are coming through the runway
that he has just left.
The fox chooses runwayoand thereby
places his life in jeopardy through sheer
lazfness.9 He can traverse any sort OF
ground at a speed that would effectually
prevent successful pursuit but he pre-
fers to travel easily, and so he takes to
open ground. He is fond of lanes and
will always go through open bars IN
preference to jumping fence, though
there is no greater artist than the fox
when it comes to high jumping. His
sinews are very springy and his big
Bushy tail is more than mere orna-
ment I0f hunters TO capture IL lHey Call
When the fox wants to. turn sharp cor
ner he steers himself around with his
brush, that Is nearly. as big as all the
rest of him.. When he, wants to Jump
plane and over he goes, even to a
height of eight or more feet. But the
fox prefers to saunter along at an easy
gait, and SO he will seek the shelter OF
the hilltopS by the least arduouS- path,
selecting the meadows the roads and the
open valleys up the mountain side, the
broad and easy road that leads to de-
struction.
their homes along the tops of ridges
where they can find a safe retreat and
rear their young unmolested Their homes
are generally deep burrows in some sandy
out after being "noled'' by the dogs
Sometimes it is the dog that is dug OUT
In one of the hunts at Blandford, an en-
thusiastic foMhound followed - ms ,. little
flew from his paws in a shower, and,
finally. the crazy dogs disappeared in
the hillside. Further and further he
went, paving frantically, until even his
barking could hardly be distinguished.
The hunters waited a long time, but no
dog appeared, and finally they set to
work to dig him out. 1t was long; hard
job of several hours, for the dog had gone
in nearly twenty-five feet, and to dig
down from the top required a cut of
about nine feet. The fox's hole was so
small that the dog could not pass through
it without enlarging it as he went, and
the dirt he displaced in his paving ef-
fectually blocked lls return. 1t was
very much subdued dog that was finally
do not always select the hills for their
homes. They are also partial to the
lowlands and sandy plains in more or less
secluded spots. The fox is an animal
human beings. as the case of Worcester
illustrates. The hunters in that city
have hunted foxes for years within a few
miles of the city limits, and at the last
hunt of the Worcester Fur company six
brushes were taken in the. two days. The
sly animals are found in generous num-
bers all through this section. and they
have frequently been seen within two
miles of the center of Westfield. When
night falls the fox comes out of his hole
and roams about the fields, where he
preys on whatever he can find; rabbits,
quail, chickens, rats, field mice, and even
toads and insects. Foxes are not so nu-
merous hereabouts as to be pests, for more
or less hunting is always going on, but
occasionally pet hen will fall victim
to forage, and then hunting expedition
IS organized for the knave.
A pack of hounds loosed at the foot of
the mountain early in the morning are
usually not long in striking the trail of
fox. The quarry may be out in the
fields, or pursuing a leiSurely course along
the hillside, but when he hears the music
of the hounds on his track he pricks up
his ears and lays out plan of campaign.
His first thought is to take the dogs
away from his hole, and so perhaps he
sets off in the opposite direction, by no
means pan1c-Strlcken, but at an easy
trot or, if the dogs are not very neal,
at walk. He wanders in and out of
the ravines, doubles on his track, ana
from the top of a ridge watches the dogs
work up the valley. Then with flying
leap, to break the scent, he goes down
the hill. and leads the pack a merry
dance around the mountain, perhaps
passing a second time through the same
runway tFhe fox in fact really plays
the dogs. and some of his tricks in put