Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1907-08-02
Fox Hunting i'm Guildhall

living alone. One morning an old friend
came along with a long handed Queens
arm shot gun on his shoulder. Ii had
been made over from flint to II cap
lock. ! said ri, orge where are you go
lug with that old iron hole ?" lie said
Come with me aud I'll show You how
to still hunt foxes. Coin over to the
Adm pasture. Ouly three miles. Sure
to get one-snow Jest right (rhere was
about an inch). This old gun will kill
one quarter er mile if en- ever git it ter
60" grabbed Old Betsey Ga Greener
l0-guage) and handful of shells aud
away We went. When about half way
it commenced showing and the thick |
spruce timber looked gloomy. George
told stories of bears and lynx that he
had seen and heard till | changed the
shells from No. 1 to T. I. shot, a small
! buck shot.
When We were near the pasture (Which
was surrounded 10y woods and has about
80 acres cleared) we saw fresh fox
track. George said "Look er that =
fairly smskin' it's so fresh keep both
eyes open now" When we came into
the open pasture the fox track made up
a ravine George took the ridge on the
left, on right side of ravine. He was
a little ahead of me and could see farther
up the ravine. Suddenly he shouted,
shoot that fac shoot that far !! " and a
very large fox ran past him within 30
yards and on towards me. When about
30 yards from me turned loose and
over he tumhled. George came down
laughing and saying: 81 knew you'd
hit him. knew we'd git one" | said
"Why didn't you shoot? You had IA
much better chance He said Oh !
/ the ID! He'd been clear to Guildhall
f before the shot would got out o my gun =
We went out to an old lumber camp
, and ate our lunch, skinned the fox, and
f took turn up in the spruces where
| had set two marten traps. Found a
, nice marten in one of them. | also
p shot partridge. George saw large
e woodpecker hammering on an old stub
, and said he would show me what his
S old gun couid do; took a rest in the
t fork of Il small tree and commenced to
d pull, pulled SO hard he finally pulled
# the muzzle off the rest and when it had
> dropped about four inches, it went of
with a roar like Fourth of July cannon
and cut the small tree clean off, but
l. did not hurt the bird George said
" There, What kind of time would
n had shootin' fox runnin' with thi!
!, bum gun - | told him he was a success
e falling timber anyway.
y That evening fox hunting frenc
e named jim came to see me. Said ;
y wood hauer told him he saw bea
" track that eve when he came over Bea
e Hill. Jim wanted me to 60 with him
g next day and see about it. SO next
n morning before daylight team LANDED
i us, with Jim's fox hound about hal
mile from the bear() tracks. When W,
got to them we found only hedgeho!
tracks. Wen, the blue smoke floatet
Il serenely away over the tree-tops as VI
l. discussed the situation. Finally whel
Is we could think of nothing more to say
v we concluded to go fox-hunting, founC
/ track and let the old dog loose. Sool
IS the fox came around and | let drive a
+ him, about 70 yards. Jim said "roc
l. far too far T. but the fox rolled ovel
l. once or twice and run again. Jim said
dies rolliu' the shot out of his fur,
IS but he only ran short dista nee anc
l. went in hole. went to Mr. Booth
s. for shovel, axe, and crowbdr and we dug
IS till we could see his head. Jim sent tn,
Ii dog in to pull out Mr.. Fox but Mr.. f
e sent the dog back with bloody nose
l. and the dog would not go back in again
Is Jim wanted to shoot the fox then but
u told him to let me play dog a while, anc
lie got short stick and crawled down clos,
s. to the fox. He growled and snappe,
u his teeth, but | held my left hand owe
Is the hole, and put the stick down for tn,
r fox to bite, and ween he bit | pulleC
e his head out of his hole and dropped
n my left hand over his throat and pulled
n him out of the hole and quickly BROKE
N his neck. We then returned the tool
+ and started for home.
u Soon the old dog was after another
n We stopped in an old log road and sool
II the fox jumped over the fence behind us
u jim heard him strike the fence ant
- turned like flash with gun at his face
Before the fox could cross the road til,
old gun spoke and another chicken THE
was dead. Jim said "What was tin
reason you didn't shoot?' Told him
n was changing my gum from one side tt
# tolher and couldn't think of but on
,e thing ter time; on our way home