I Agreed to Hunt Snowshoe Hares —...

This story, “Snowshoe Runaround,” appeared within the December 1962 difficulty of Out of doors Life.

I stood on the fringe of a snow-choked evergreen swamp, slowly congealing and pondering moodily how a lot white-rabbit looking has in frequent with ice fishing, one other glacial exercise through which I discover myself concerned every winter.

In certainly one of these undertakings, I mirrored, you stand round freezing on the ice ready for a pink flag to pop up; within the different you stand round freezing within the snow ready for a rabbit to pop up. And why do I get entangled? It’s as a result of again within the heat months, some character says, “Why don’t you come up subsequent winter and shoot some rabbits or catch some fish?” and on the time, it looks as if an exquisite concept.

This time it was Dick Fosie. Dick runs Bearcat Lodge up in Holderness, New Hampshire, and after I was there grouse looking within the fall, the covers had been thick with snowshoe rabbits. I didn’t shoot any, be-cause I didn’t wish to corrupt Dick’s hen canine, however I did point out {that a} baked, stuffed hare would style good.

“Why don’t you come up subsequent winter and shoot a multitude of ’em?” Dick urged.

On the time, within the mellow October woods, it had appeared like an exquisite concept. “I’d like to,” I agreed.

So there I used to be ready within the snow on a day final January with the mercury at 3 under. And to make issues worse, I used to be nonetheless attempting to get better from a nerve-shaking incident that had occurred simply earlier than Dick and I left the lodge within the daybreak’s early gentle. I had been standing beside the automotive ready whereas Dick went out to the kennel to get his canine, Denny, when immediately a flicker of movement caught my eye. A lump of snow beneath a gaunt lilac bush seemed to be hopping leisurely towards the shed, and as I stared, it resolved itself right into a fats rabbit.

Dick Fosie has usually described this Holderness space as a sportsman’s paradise, however I nonetheless hadn’t anticipated to seek out recreation proper within the again yard. With fumbling fingers, I slapped a few No. 4’s into the tubes of my 16 gauge over-and-under and was nearly to place meat within the pot when Dick and Denny appeared across the nook of the home. For a startled second, Dick stared on the tableau earlier than him, after which his voice rose in sudden alarm.

“Don’t shoot!” he cried. “That’s Louella.”

As I lowered the gun in confusion, I noticed that this rabbit had pink eyes and pink ears. Louella was the youngsters’s pet, Dick defined, and she or he had one way or the other obtained unfastened from her cage within the barn. The following factor was to get her again. Denny didn’t assist any. To him Louella was recreation, and he gave tongue in a ringing bass that introduced faces to the bed room home windows. Dick’s long-handled boat internet didn’t assist both, and eventually Rickie needed to come down in his pajamas and drag Louella out from beneath the porch. Then we went looking, however that type of factor is a shock to the system on the fringe of daybreak, and the expertise had left me shaken.

Now, out of the tangled coronary heart of the swamp, there rose a startled yelp which modified immediately to a frenzied, deep-voiced chop, and on the sound, I used to be immediately heat. That’s like ice fishing, too. When a pink flag springs erect, you neglect the nippiness wind and the numbing chilly within the pleasure of anticipation. However there the analogy ends. When a true-voiced hound opens on the path of a streaking snowshoe rabbit, the second packs a wallop all its personal.

Denny was making this one dash. Denny is half beagle, half black and tan, with among the finest traits of each. He has a choke-bored nostril, highly effective, driving legs, and the passion and stamina to stick with the quarry all day if want be. He additionally has a mellow, chiming bass voice that makes your spine twang.

Dick’s shout got here from the swamp: “Denny will need to have tripped over that rabbit. He’s sight-running him.”

He was certainly, and the chase was transferring in my basic route. There was a breakable crust over the two-foot snow with two inches of contemporary powder over the crust. Canine and rabbit might skim over it with out breaking by means of, and Dick and I might skim over it, too, after a trend, on snowshoes. I had simply time to scramble to a bit of open place within the timber when the rabbit burst out of the laurel 40 ft away, again hunched, kicking his ears in nice bouncing leaps.

It was a straightforward shot, and I figured this was one chase that was going to finish in a rush. I raised the 16 and blew a gap within the snow proper the place the rabbit had been however wasn’t. And that was it. There was no time for a second barrel; there seldom is. The rabbit didn’t go far, although. Dick has hunted this swamp for years, and he was on the proper place on the proper time to roll the swamp runner endways with a cost of 4’s. You’ll be able to’t conceal tracks within the snow, and when Dick got here up. holding the rabbit out of Denny’s attain, my defeat lay plainly written in winter’s white web page. As he glanced at me with a quizzical expression, I blurted
the primary alibi that got here to my thoughts.

“I used to be afraid it was Louella,” I defined.

Really, you don’t actually need an alibi for lacking certainly one of these white streaks, not forward of a canine on a winter day, at the very least, for they’re the swiftest four-footed creatures within the woods, sooner even than the fox who should catch them by stealth. No canine can run them down of their native swamps. Add to {that a} bag of suave, dodging tips that may do credit score to Reynard himself, and also you’ve obtained an opponent worthy of your finest efforts, which regularly aren’t ok.

And that’s an odd factor, too, as a result of at another season of the yr, snowshoe rabbits are seemingly the stupidest critters on earth. Ceaselessly in spring you’ll see them hopping leisurely alongside the edges of nation roads or mendacity immobile of their varieties among the many evergreens. And in autumn, deer hunters blow their foolish heads off with .30/30’s for camp meat as they sit obligingly or transfer listlessly off by means of the woods.

In winter, it’s completely different. Winter places springs of their lengthy hind legs. It places zip of their actions and even appears to sharpen their wits. Then, on the first be aware of the trailing hound, they take off in nice bounds and run like streaking white ghosts by means of the tangled evergreens, the embodiment of the snow-choked swamps. White rabbits and snowshoe rabbits are their frequent names, however truly they’re hares, dwelling their lives above floor and bringing forth their younger fully-furred with eyes open and able to run. Various hare is the proper identify. It’s acceptable as a result of the animals’ coats flip progressively from summer season brown to snowy white in winter.

There is only one weak point within the snowshoe’s ways, and if it weren’t for this failing, few of them could be shot by hunters. His first maneuver when he hears the hound on his path is a blinding burst of pace to rid himself of his pursuer. When this fails, he begins to chop his zigzagging capers, his dodges and twists and feints, generally racing out and in among the many evergreens simply out of sight, generally main the chase proper in a foreign country. However invariably — except he loses the canine someplace alongside the best way — ultimately he’ll circle again to his place to begin.

Denny’s voice, echoing by means of the swamp in his brief, mad chase, had startled different rabbits from their varieties, as regularly occurs, and it wasn’t 10 minutes earlier than he had one other one up and away. He gave discover with a difficult bawl that modified shortly to a rhythmic chop as he adopted a smoking path.

“Get down by the brook,” Dick mentioned. “I’ll minimize throughout to the knoll.” His snowshoes slapped the powdered crust as he loped away. Dick is a cat hunter, amongst different issues, and he thinks nothing of a 20-mile jog by means of the winter woods on his lengthy Penobscot webs. I don’t suppose a lot of it both.

I made my far more cautiously to the sting of the snow-mounded brook and stood gripping my gun in chilly fingers, straining my eyes into the depths of the clamorous swamp. The chase got here racketing by means of the evergreens, and as soon as I caught a fleeting glimpse of Denny as he flashed previous a gap within the laurel. However his quarry stored simply out of sight and gun vary, an exasperating behavior of those white swamp ghosts. Then the sound of Denny’s frenzied bugling notes modified route and progressively light away.

Dick got here slogging over on his snow-shoes. “He’s left the swamp,” he mentioned. “Heading for the hole a mile away.”

If we’d been fox or cat looking, we’d have needed to comply with the chase, however we knew that finally the rabbit could be again. The query was when, and simply out of curiosity I glanced at my watch: 11:20.

“You keep right here,” Dick advised me. “I’m going to mosey over to the sting of the clearing. He might come again that method.”

Alone beside the brook, I made myself as comfy as attainable among the many laurel and settled down to attend. Slowly the frozen, seemingly abandoned woods got here to life. The chickadees appeared first, hopping about within the pines overhead, trilling their cheery notes. Deep within the swamp a jaybird screamed, and presently a solitary crow flapped previous, wanting down upon the snowy world and cawing his discontent. Just a few moments later, as I huddled deeper into the evergreens, a fats grey squirrel got here bounding among the many timber, jerking his tail at every leap, and scurried up the trunk of a tall pine.

And immediately, over the murmur of the ice-muted brook, I heard Denny’s voice faint within the distance. The chase was coming again!

It was coming quick, too, and unexpectedly the spot the place I used to be standing didn’t appear “rabbity” any extra. I used to be positive I should be throughout the brook and farther to the left. The identical factor invariably occurs after I’m on a deer stand, and often my second guess is improper. However I by no means appear to be taught. Anyway, I attempted to run to this new location the best way Dick ran on his snowshoes, and on the third step I tripped over my webs and landed stomach down within the powder. By the point I’d obtained untangled and regained my ft, all I wanted was a carrot nostril and a pair of raisin eyes to be arrange in somebody’s entrance yard.

Issues labored out all proper, although, as a result of by that point it was too late to alter place, and by that point it had grow to be evident that I couldn’t have been in a righter spot. Denny’s voice rose in a crescendo past the brook, and a second later the rabbit burst out of the laurel, heading towards me like a missile. This time my cost of 4’s caught him in mid-bound, and he somersaulted to lie kicking lower than 30 ft away.

Denny got here storming to the tip of the path, and I let him mouth and nuzzle the rabbit for a second earlier than I lifted it out of his attain. Then, earlier than I pocketed it, I held it for a second extra — sure, gloating, for each snowshoe rabbit bagged is a triumph in its method.

Shut up, the distinction in texture and coloring of the snowshoe’s coat from that of the Easter bunny – Louella, for instance – is clearly evident. The snowshoe rabbit’s winter coat isn’t an ivory gloss however reasonably the white fluffiness of sifted snow. The sides of his ears alone don’t change coloration however stay black tipped the yr round. In winter, as he crouches in his type together with his ears folded again, these black pencil traces give the impact of twig shadows on the snow.

Maybe most fascinating of all, although, are the white rabbit’s nice splayed hind ft, six inches lengthy, 4 inches large, and thickly padded with downy fur, which permit him to skim over the deep snow sooner even than Dick Fosie.

Within the pleasure I had forgotten to have a look at my watch, however as Dick joined me I remembered. It was now 5 minutes previous 1, and the chase will need to have lasted at the very least 1½ hours.

A sandwich and a thermos of scalding soup again on the automotive, and we had been able to go once more. That afternoon we hunted a smaller pocket, and Denny had hardly investigated its periphery earlier than his massive voice opened. About three bawls later, from my stand on a wooden highway, I heard the blast of Dick’s 12 gauge double, however the chase stored rioting on.

“Did you miss?” I known as, attempting to inject a be aware of sympathy into my tones.

“No,” Dick known as again. “This isn’t Denny’s rabbit. That is one other one. The 2 will need to have jumped out collectively, and this one minimize proper in entrance of me.”

“If you happen to fell in a effectively, you’d give you a trout in your pocket,” I mentioned, and I used to be about to elaborate on the topic when a sudden swerve of the chase caught my consideration.

f the rabbit continued on this new course, he was shortly going to go throughout the wooden highway some 50 yards away, and I clattered off to intercept him. However he was too sensible to fall into the lure, and on the final second he swerved once more, ricocheting again into the depths of the swamp. Twice extra he circled among the many evergreens, and twice extra Dick and I picked the improper stands. Then, as I waited pant-ing beside a giant hemlock, I noticed a white streak flash between two clumps of laurel. One certain took it throughout the opening, and instinctively I yanked my gun up and fired into the comb the best way you snap off at a grouse which has disappeared behind a display screen of ever-greens. Typically these wild photographs join, as this one did, and people are
those you keep in mind.

Denny began another rabbit that afternoon, a long-legged jumper that gave us the runaround within the laurel for half an hour after which headed proper in a foreign country. By the point he circle again, it was too darkish to shoot, and Dick needed to do some fancy working to collar the canine. Once we obtained again to the automotive, a full moon was simply rimming the jap hills.

Not the least of the charms of Bear-cat Lodge are the meals Evelyn Fosie serves to hungry fishermen and hunters, old school New England meals that make you neglect missed photographs, misplaced fish, and weary miles of path. That evening she gave the troops baked beans in an genuine earthenware bean pot, together with ham, apple pie, and thick wedges of cheese. After dinner, as I sat cleansing my gun, Dick turned Lou-ella and a good friend unfastened on the couch “so that you’ll acknowledge tame rabbits subsequent time,” he defined.

Subsequent morning we had been up earlier than daybreak, heading for a wild, distant swamp on the base of Prospect Mountain. Dick had saved this spot until final. “I haven’t been in there this winter,” he mentioned, “however final fall in deer season it
was crawling with rabbits.”

We hiked in alongside a winding wooden highway, the rhythmic crunch of our snow-shoes punctuating the stillness. In call-ing this Holderness space a sportsman’s paradise, Dick Fosie doesn’t exaggerate. Located between Little Squam and large Squam lakes, it provides fisher-men landlocked salmon, trout, bass, pickerel, and perch; and to hunters grouse, rabbits, deer, and bears. This morning on the mile hike into the swamp we began grouse from the snowy, roadside evergreens, and we noticed fox and cat tracks crossing our path. Dick averages 20 cats a winter, and his sports activities hung over a dozen deer to the lodge recreation pole final fall.
The place the white ribbon of highway turned steeply up the mountain, we left it and struck out by means of the laurel to the sting of the swamp. A north-country rabbit swamp, in fact, isn’t actually a swamp in any respect within the typically accepted sense of the phrase. It’s truly a thick, tangled mass of cedar, balsam, hemlock, alder, willow, and tamarack densely packed and rising out of a sea of laurel and floor pine. Some, like this one, are impenetrable. “There are locations in there the place there’s no room to place one foot forward of the opposite,” Dick mentioned.

These are the haunts that snowshoe rabbits love. Right here they’re born and reside and die. Right here they construct their secret passageways by means of the thick, summer season greenery, passageways which the winter snows betray. We might see the marks of their cuttings and the white ribbons of their trails main out to the feeding grounds, branching, and fading away. Their tracks had been every-where.
Dick unsnapped Denny’s leash, and because the canine bounded off, we adopted a bit of method into the swamp after which be-gan to circle its edge. We might hear Denny’s pattering ft on the crust, and infrequently we might see his black-and-tan type flickering among the many evergreens as he wove forwards and backwards under us. All of a sudden his deep bass rang out in a difficult bawl. It rose repeatedly and turned to a rhythmic cadence echoing by means of the swamp. I ran to a gap and noticed a fast blur of white flash by means of a hall of laurel. I raised my gun, however I used to be too late. One certain took the rabbit from sight, and never for a clamorous hour did he present himself once more. When he did, Dick snapped a shot by means of the comb to finish the chase.

The swamp was filled with rabbits. As Dick had mentioned, it was an untapped vein of snowshoes. By lunchtime we had 4 tucked away in our jackets, and reality to inform their weight was partly compensated for by the lightening weight of our ammunition. There was no return to the nice and cozy automotive that day, solely a frozen sandwich and a fast sip of espresso in a stand of pines whereas grey clouds blanketed the sky and a keen-edged wind sliced by means of heavy cloth-ing. We had been on the far aspect of the swamp by. now, shut beneath the moun-tain, and now occurred one of many strangest incidents in all my years of looking.

Denny had a rabbit up and away, dodging and twisting among the many evergreens. For 20 minutes or extra, the chase racketed by means of the swamp whereas Dick and I maneuvered for place. Then, as I stood beside an historical blow-down peering by means of the comb, Denny’s frenzied chiming broke in mid-tone, wavered, and fell silent. There was one thing eerie in regards to the sudden stillness, and Dick and I hurried over to analyze. There was one thing eerie, too, in what we discovered clearly written within the powder snow.

The rabbit’s triangular tracks led out of a snarl of cedar, spaced 4 yards aside, and between them lay Denny’s shorter bounds. Then, abruptly, the rabbit’s path ended as if he had taken wing. And that, we determined, will need to have been simply what occurred. The spot was jumbled with Denny’s tracks, however unbelievable because it appeared, one thing sooner than Denny, sooner even than the streaking rabbit, will need to have swooped out of the white silence and snatched it from forward of the canine. A snowy owl was Dick’s suggestion. A minimum of, it was the one reply we might give to the thriller.

Sure it’s that no animal within the north woods is extra relentlessly pursued than the snowshoe rabbit. Defenseless, apart from his built-in pace, he’s the favourite meal of each predator. Hawks, owls, and eagles harry him from above; foxes, wildcats, lynxes, and weasels comply with his trails by means of the swamps. When periodic epidemics skinny his ranks, the predators starve; in cycles of rabbit a lot, the predators develop fats. The marvel of it’s that any of his variety survive, however like his cottontail cousin he has his personal reply to the issue. Thrice a yr the does deliver forth litters of two to a few younger, and it’s this fecundity that retains the northern covers populated, come what might.

They’d actually performed job on this swamp. Solely minutes after Denny had reluctantly deserted the path of the lacking rabbit, he had one other one going, a long-legged jumper that performed forward of him, zigzagging among the many evergreens, simply out of sight. And as Dick and I shifted positions forwards and backwards, the primary lazy snowflakes be-gan to sift down by means of the pines. The snow appeared to place new zing within the rabbit’s flying ft, for the chase that had been circling close by now took off in overdrive and light away within the distance.

“Heading for the mountain,” Dick mentioned.

It was snowing more durable now, and moist flakes had been starting to trickle down my neck. I raised my hood and brushed the snow from my jacket, ready, listening, whereas out within the whiteness past, the chase went on. I might virtually see the sprinting snowshoe zigzagging, back-tracking, bounding, swerving, utilizing each trick of his clan to throw off the relentless hound.

Dick appeared like a wraith out of the snow. “If I didn’t know Denny, I’d suppose he’d struck a deer monitor,” he mentioned, glancing at his watch.

We stood smoking, speaking low-voiced, every with an ear cocked to the breeze. The minutes appeared like hours, however solely 30 of them had handed when, immediately, Dick held up his hand.

“They’re coming!” He tossed away his cigarette and jogged off by means of the comb.

I strained my ears, and over the hiss of snow by means of the pines I caught a faint thread of sound which hung and wavered within the white stillness. I stood a second listening, attempting to hint the route of the chase. Then I headed blindly by means of the snow to intercept it. On it got here full throated. Denny had pulled out all of the stops, and his massive voice rolled and swelled throughout the swamp. However the snow performed tips with the sound. As soon as, canine and rabbit appeared to be coming straight towards me, however each of them handed by far to the aspect.

I heard the muffled blast of Dick’s gun, however nonetheless the chase continued. After which, straining my eyes by means of the white curtain, I noticed a blur of movement thicker than the falling snow. Instinctively the gun snapped to my shoulder. Instinctively I swung with the bound-ing streak, and because the muzzles blotted it out, my finger squeezed the set off. The white blur somersaulted and lay nonetheless.

What was the final run of the day. It was a protracted solution to the automotive, and I nonetheless had a 150-mile drive to Westfield, Massachusetts. So we left the remainder of the rabbits to their snowy winter swamp and trudged off by means of the falling snow.

Learn Subsequent: I Promised to Take My Boys Rabbit Hunting Every Day of Christmas Break

It’s a chilly sport, white-rabbit looking, fraught with discomfort and uncertainty, however its rewards are commensurate with its frustrations. I knew that the following time somebody mentioned, “Why don’t you come up and shoot some rabbits?” I’d promptly reply, “I’d like to.”

After I don’t, it will likely be time to hold up the 16 gauge for good.