Page:The Hare.djvu/103

Rh hours. Mr. L'Aigle Cole mentions a hairbreadth escape which happened to a poacher, one of whose snares the keeper had found with a hare in it, and hid up close by to catch the poacher when he came for it. 'Luckily for the poacher, he came earlier than usual, and had already taken several hares from his other snares, when, nearing this one, he noticed a fresh footprint on a molehill, and instantly crawled with the greatest caution through the underwood; when to his horror he almost knocked against the keeper, who, however, was so sound asleep that the poacher not only took the hare from his snare, but re-set it for pure impudence, and got safely away.'

The drawback to the use of snares is, that the poacher can set these engines all round a field in a very short time. The man from Penicuik told me that on a certain occasion he set fifty-seven snares in a single field. Unfortunately for him, he was caught in the act of visiting them, and soon found his wrists fettered with a bracelet of his own contrivance. He had prided himself on the stoutness of his gear, and he learnt to rue it. It would be easy to enlarge upon poaching usages to a much greater extent than I have done yet; but enough has been said to put the game preserver on his mettle. If he can employ a