Chapter 97 Beasts of Winter - 2

Before the whole land was covered with snow, and when the winter was drawing to a close and the snow was beginning to melt on the south-facing slopes and on my woodpile, the partridges came from the woods to feed, morning and evening.No matter which side you go in the woods, there are always partridges flapping their wings and flying away, shaking off the snowflakes on the dead leaves and twigs; when the snowflakes fall in the sun, they are like golden dust; Birds are not afraid of winter.They are often covered by the snow, and it is said, "sometimes they flap their wings into the soft snow and hide for a day or two." When I was with Lei, I used to startle them in the wilderness.Every evening they flew to their usual tree, where the cunning hunter was waiting for them, when there was going to be quite a commotion in the distant orchards that adjoined the woods.Anyway, I'm glad the partridges always find food.Living on buds and water, they are nature's own birds.

On dark winter mornings, or short winter afternoons, I sometimes hear the barking of a great pack of hounds, filling the whole forest with their howling, their irresistible instinct to hunt, while I hear intermittent Hunting horns, knowing there are people behind them.Again the forest resounded with their cries, but no fox came running to the open plain by the lake, nor did a band of pursuers pursue their Action.Maybe at dusk I see the hunters, with only a shaggy fox tail trailing behind the sleigh as a trophy, come back to find their hotel for the night.They told me that if the fox hid in the frozen ground, he would be safe, or that if he ran in a straight line, no hound could catch him; but once he left his pursuer far behind, It stopped to rest and listened until they caught up again. When it ran again, it made a circle and returned to its original nest, where the hunter was waiting for it.Sometimes he galloped a few rods over the top of the wall, and then jumped to the other side, as if he knew the water would not taint his smell.A hunter once told me that he once saw a fox, pursued by hounds, escape onto Walden Pond, when a shallow pool of water appeared on the ice, and after a while it ran and returned to the same shore.Soon, the hounds arrived, but when they got here, their sense of smell could no longer smell body odor.Sometimes a great pack of hounds, chasing themselves, came to my house, passed the door, and circled the house, ignoring me, barking, as if suffering from some madness, and nothing could stop their pursuit, they And so round and round in pursuit until they detect a recent odor of body odor, wise hounds are always desperate to chase the fox.A man came to my cabin one day from Lexington, asking for his hound, which had been chasing a long way by itself, and had been for a week.However, after telling him what I know, I'm afraid he may not benefit, because every time I was about to answer his question, he interrupted me and asked me, "What are you doing here?" He lost a dog and found a man.

There was an old hunter who had a dull talk and often came to Walden Pond to bathe once a year when the water was warmest. He also came to see me and told me that on a certain afternoon many years ago, He was prowling in Walden Woods with a shotgun; and just as he was walking on the Wayland Road, he heard the sound of a hound pursuing him, and presently a fox leaped over the wall and reached the road as fast as Thinking the same, he jumped another wall and left the road, and the bullet he fired quickly missed it.Some distance behind came an old hound and his three beagles, and in pursuit at full speed, of their own accord, they disappeared in the forest.Late this afternoon, as he was resting in the thick woods south of Walden, he heard far away in the direction of Fair Harbor, the hounds still chasing the foxes; they were approaching, and their barks shook the whole forest. , nearer, nearer, now at Weir Meadows, now at Baker Grange.He stood still, long, listening to their music, which was so sweet to the hunter's ears, when suddenly the fox appeared, and walked briskly through the forest corridor, and it The sound was drowned out by the sympathetic rustle of the leaves, and, swift and serene, it took hold of the ground and left its pursuers a long way behind; , with its back toward the hunter.For a moment compassion restrained the hunter's arms; yet it was a short-lived feeling, as quick as thought, and his firearm took aim, and bang—the fox rolled off the rock and lay dead on the ground. up.The hunter was still standing where he was, listening to the barking of the hounds.They were still in pursuit, and now all the paths in the nearby forest were filled with their demonic howls.At last the old hound sprang into view, sniffing the ground, and barking like a demon, until the air shook, and ran straight for the rocks; but, seeing the dead fox, it stopped barking suddenly, As if overwhelmed by astonishment, speechless, it walked around, around it, silently; and one by one its puppies came, waking up like their mother, in this mysterious atmosphere Zhong fell silent.So the Hunter went among them, and the mystery was solved.He skinned the fox, and they waited quietly, and then they followed the fox's tail for a while, and finally turned into the woods. This night, a Weston gentleman found the Concord hunter and told him that they had been away from the Weston woods for a week now, chasing themselves in this way.The hunter of Concord told him all that he knew, and gave him the skin of the fox, which he accepted and went away.He could not find his hounds that night, but he knew next day that they had crossed the river, spent the night at a farmhouse, had a good meal there, and started home early in the morning.