|
|
|
|
|
|
|
title page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
return to page 20 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
previous page
next page |
|
|
|
Page 193:-
I have not met with any author that hath made this
observation of the fox, that after he has killed a goose and
only sucked the blood, (but not taken her away,) the dogs
cannot hunt him for 200 yards or more, unless the drag is
very strong, then they will fly two or 300 yards without any
scent at all, and come upon it again, but with difficulty,
and hunt it for a quarter of a mile, when the scent becomes
better. There was a fox which had killed several geese in
the neighbourhood where I lived: I, with two or three
others, went to hunt him; we met with the drag, which the
dogs run to, where he had killed a goose and left her; they
could not run the scent any further, but there being a
little snow, we could observe that he had tumbled a good
deal, and had crept on his side above 100 yards, here the
dogs could make any thing of it, but we tracing him a little
further, they again could hunt it till they unkenneled him.
From the above account, it appears to me the feet leaves the
scent, and probably he had dipt his feet in the goose's
blood, or what other natural reason, the more able must
relate; I have told a fact.
The age of a fox is known by the lobes of his liver, he
having a fresh one added every year: they breed once in a
year, and seldom have more than four cubs at a litter; I
never could observe that the dog fox had any care of the
cubs. The wild cats here are of different sizes, but all of
one colour, (grey with black strokes across the back;) the
largest are near the size of a fox, and are the most fierce
and daring animals we have; they seem to be of the tyger
kind, and seize their prey after the same manner; they
cannot be tamed, their habitation is amongst the rocks or
hollow trees.
|
badger
otter
pine marten
polecat
weasel
|
|
Here are the badger, otter, martern, foul-mart, (which Roger
Ascham calls the Fumart,) and weasel; animals so well known
that I shall pass them, with their names only.
|
horse
|
|
This country hath an excellent breed of saddle-horses; few
hunters in the kingdom exceed them in beauty and strength,
but we do not take much pains to breed draught horses.
Lancashire, Westmorland, and southern parts of Cumberland,
produce excellent long-horned cattle; the sheep, which are
numerous upon the mountains, are small, and their wool
coarse, but the mutton very good. The soil in most places
produce, with little cultivation, wheat, rye, barley, oats,
pease, beans, turnips, &c. The natural produce may be
best understood by the exports; which are live cattle of all
kinds, both fat and lean; butter firkins, bacon-hams, and
flitches, dried beef and mutton, salmon, charr, and trout,
potted and otherwise; lead and lead-ore, black-lead, coals,
iron, and iron-ore; corn of all kinds, tanned leather, and
other smaller articles.
I have thus given my reader the best account I can of every
thing remarkable witin the line of my subject. Let me once
more intreat his indulgence for the many errors which will
ever creep into a work compiled as this was, amidst numerous
interruptions. Truth only has been my aim, and if I have
added one mite to the literary treasury, I have obtained my
utmost desire.
F I N I S.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
next page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
