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Hiftorical Effay on the Chafe.

HISTORICAL ESSAY on the CHASE.
(Continued from page 14.)
Htwals, only thofe of May
OWEVER, of all these fef-

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others a calf. The facrifice being ended, and having offered the primitiæ of the victims to the goddefs, the hunters made a

jovial repaft of the reft, feafting

and November were celebrated the dogs on the offal, whom they with folemnity and fplendor, at crowned with flowers, betokenthe fpringing verdure and the falling thereby that the feftival was of the leaf, because they hap- kept for them. pened at the time of the two At an interview between queen grand affemblies of the nation; Jane of Bourbon, wife of Charles that of the fpring in the champ V. and the duchefs of Valois, de Mars, and that of autumn; his mother, the duke de Bourbon thefe two occafions being the gave a grand hunt to the two moft favourable for forming nu- princeffes in the neighbourhood merous hunting parties, while of Clermont: in this he caught a the grande nobleffe were togeftag, the foot of which he caused, ther, and in train for acting in

Concert.

It appears from authentic documents, that ever fince the eleventh century, St. Hubert, now the patron of hunters, has been claimed as the preferver from madness; dogs being more liable to attacks from that distemper than the other animals, by the extreme thirft they frequently fuffer in the chafe, or when they are neglected in their kennels,

those who had the care of the packs, invoked the faint to preferve their dogs from madnefs, and the devotion of the valets paffing on to the masters, thefe latter addreffed their prayers to the fame faint that he would guard them from all evil accidents in the purfuit of their sport. Arrian informs us, that there were hunters in Gaul, who facrificed annually to Diana; to this end they had a kind of trunk, into which they put, for every hare that was taken, two oboles; for a fox, a drachma; for a deer, four drachmas; then, every year, on the feast of Diana, they opened this trunk, and, with the money they found in it, they purchafed a victim; fome bought a heep, others a goat, and fome Vol. IV. No. XX.

with great gallantry, to be prefented to them by his grand-veneur. Francis I. whom Feuilleux ftyles the father of hunters, having feparated from his companions while out on a chase, and loft himself in a wood, was obliged to take fhelter in the cottage of a collier (charbonnier) from whofe mouth he had the pleasure of hearing the truth, perhaps for the first time in his life. The fame story is told of

Antiochus.

The art of hunting is a very extenfive term, if we confider it in all the particulars to which it is applicable. It has, in all ages, been much cultivated in Europe. One proof of its confideration, and of the importance that has been annexed to it is, that a great part of the ufual metaphors in the feveral languages of this quarter of the globe are borrowed from the terms made ufe of in hunting. Many books have been written, in which this art is treated of at length. Not to mention thofe publifhed in our own country, which we must fuppofe are in the hands of every gentleman who takes delight in this manly diverfion, I fhall here advert only to thofe of other na

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Defcription of Traps for catching the Sable.

tions where it has been cultivated | defcription of both, which if you

think worthy of infertion in your
elegant and entertaining maga-
zine, with the drawings annexed,
they are highly at your fervice.
I am your's, &c.

W.

with fuccefs. Among fuch as have acquired celebrity in France thofe of Jacques de Feuilleux and of Robert de Salnove, are doubtlefs to be placed in the foremost rank. They ought to be confulted by all who would acquire a thorough and accurate knowledge of the different practices obferved they fix obliquely two partitions For making one of these floptzi, in the chafe. The manoeuvres of poles of birch, laid one upon they defcribe are fuch as have another, the height of about had the fanction of experience; three palms, by a length of a and are, for the most part, at fathom and a half, in a glade in a prefent in ufe. It would there- wood. From the aperture left in fore be fuperfluous to give a co- the right angle, they drive, two pious detail of all thefe particu- parallel rows of pofts, of the lars. The display we may make fame height with the first hedge of of fome few, will not difpenfe hurdles; at the aperture itfelf the reader from confulting the they drive two taller than the treatifes compofed on purpofe, reft, which are joined together and still lefs from acquiring by by a tranfverfe piece. Between experience, the various methods thefe two ranks of pofts they of routine that are not to be adapt a trap-fall, compofed of at drawn from books. It will here leaft three young fir-trees fplit, fuffee, if we point out in a fum-bound together, and placed in mary way the points on which the fportfman fhould principally

fix his attention.

(To be continued.)

fuch manner as to fill the whole of the interval between the pofts;

it is alfo furnished forwards with a ring made of twisted bark, or twigs. When they want to fet the trap, they raife the acting timbers by their ring, by means

To the Editors of the Sporting of a long ftick which ferves as a

Magazine,

GENTLEMEN,

BE

lever, and is brought to reft on the traverse of the two pofts in EING on my travels in Ruf- front: the other extremity of this fia, I left the town of Ver-lever is fixed by a catch tied to chotin, and purfued the high it with a ftring, to another move, road that leads to Solikamfk, able traverfe placed under the when I could not help taking no- middle of a falling beam, at the tice of the number of traps fet all fame time placing fmall ticks the way in different places, as obliquely againft this traverfe to far as the village Koptiakova, by right and left. They then ftrew the countrymen, for catching about this traverfe and the whole gelinottes, hares, &c. Thefe of the area under the falling inares they call floptzi, and make beam, all forts of berries, of which the greatest use of them in win- the gelinottes of the woods and ter. I faw alfo in feveral places, the now-birds are very fond. traps fet for catching fables in As foon as one or more of thefe winter. I herewith lend you a birds are come under the beam,

and

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Modern Method of Hunting the Whale.

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cords are joined, and paffed round a little ftick, at the longest extremity whereof they fufpend

At

and begin to disturb with their feet these rods laid obliquely on the ground, the catch starts, the lever rifes, and lets drop the fall-a gelinotte or a piece of flesh, the ing beam, which crushes all be. weight of which lowers the little neath it. As the fables are like- ftick, and by that means keeps wife greedy of the berries, they the cords about it in proper ornot unfrequently fall into thefe der. The fable or the martin, fnares, in which also hares are allured by the bait, climbs on the very often taken. The fame lower beam, and creeps along fort of falls, only larger and hea-with great precaution till he is vier, are ufed for catching foxes within reach of his prey. and wolves. this inftant, the little tick to The contrivance for catching which the bait is tied, and which fables is properly an invention of held the cords, lets them go; the the vogoul Tartars. For its place lever takes its bias, and the fallthey choose a spot where firs doing beam cruflies the animal on not stand thick together; when, the lower timber. taking two of the young trees, that are at the diftance of a couple of fathom, or two and a half from each other, taking care to ftrip the trunks completely towards the bottom of all their branches. They then drive -into the earth, against one of thefe trees a strong poft, a fathom or even more in height. Above, they place a piece of fir horizontally at full length, and faftened to the two trees in fuch manner, that one of its extremities comes between the poft and its neighbouring tree. This piece of timber is furmounted by another, ferving as a falling beam, and is fixed fo as to allow of one of its extremities being moved up and down between the

During the winter, the chafe is one of the principal employments of the peafants of this country. They go in purfuit of fables and martins, with fhoes like racquets, made for walking on the fnow, and fetting-dogs; they commonly knock down these animals from the trees with checrotines or blunted darts. But the fable is much more difficult to take than the martin; the latter, as foon as he is chafed by the dogs, fcampers up a tree, where he is eafily hit; whereas the fable runs for a long time, and makes a number of turns and traverfes before he takes to the trees for refuge.

poft and its tree, and to this Modern Method of HUNTING the purpose they carefully fmoothen the trunk of the tree a little with

the axe. To the other extremity O

of the falling balk they tie a flight lever, which, when they raife the balk, refts on the top of the poft cut fo as to hold it. This lever is provided at one end with a cord made of bark, having knots in it; there is also another tied very fhort about the inferior horizontal timber. Thefe two

WHALE.

F all the numerous enemies of this enormous fish, man is certainly the greateft: he alone deftroys more in a year than all the others in an age, and has actually thinned their numbers in that part of the world where they are principally fought.

On the first discovery of Greenland, whales, not having been accustomed to be difturbed, freK 2 quently

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