I Agreed to Hunt Snowshoe Hares — and Regretted It Almost Instantly

This story, “Snowshoe Runaround,” appeared within the December 1962 situation 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 searching has in frequent with ice fishing, one other glacial exercise through which I discover myself concerned every winter.

In one in all these undertakings, I mirrored, you stand round freezing on the ice ready for a purple 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 once I was there grouse searching within the fall, the covers had been thick with snowshoe rabbits. I didn’t shoot any, be-cause I didn’t need to corrupt Dick’s fowl 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 large number of ’em?” Dick prompt.

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 recuperate 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 all of the sudden a flicker of movement caught my eye. A lump of snow beneath a gaunt lilac bush gave the impression to be hopping leisurely towards the shed, and as I stared, it resolved itself right into a fats rabbit.

Dick Fosie has typically described this Holderness space as a sportsman’s paradise, however I nonetheless hadn’t anticipated to search out sport 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 someway received free from her cage within the barn. The following factor was to get her again. Denny didn’t assist any. To him Louella was sport, 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 below the porch. Then we went searching, 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 all of the sudden heat. That’s like ice fishing, too. When a purple 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 greatest 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 should have tripped over that rabbit. He’s sight-running him.”

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

It was a simple 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 may’t cover 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.

Truly, you don’t really want an alibi for lacking one in all these white streaks, not forward of a canine on a winter day, not less than, 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 methods that will do credit score to Reynard himself, and also you’ve received an opponent worthy of your greatest efforts, which frequently aren’t adequate.

And that’s an odd factor, too, as a result of at every other 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 the woods.

In winter, it’s totally 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 the tangled evergreens, the embodiment of the snow-choked swamps. White rabbits and snowshoe rabbits are their frequent names, however really 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 title. It’s acceptable as a result of the animals’ coats flip progressively from summer time brown to snowy white in winter.

There is only one weak point within the snowshoe’s techniques, 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 velocity 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 another country. However invariably — except he loses the canine someplace alongside the best way — eventually he’ll circle again to his place to begin.

Denny’s voice, echoing by the swamp in his brief, mad chase, had startled different rabbits from their varieties, as incessantly 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 rapidly to a rhythmic chop as he adopted a smoking path.

“Get down by the brook,” Dick stated. “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 the winter woods on his lengthy Penobscot webs. I don’t assume 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 palms, straining my eyes into the depths of the clamorous swamp. The chase got here racketing by 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 saved 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 path and progressively light away.

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

If we’d been fox or cat searching, we’d have needed to observe 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 informed me. “I’m going to mosey over to the sting of the clearing. He could come again that approach.”

Alone beside the brook, I made myself as comfy as potential 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, trying 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 bushes, jerking his tail at every leap, and scurried up the trunk of a tall pine.

And all of the sudden, 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 all of sudden the spot the place I used to be standing didn’t appear “rabbity” any extra. I used to be certain I must be throughout the brook and farther to the left. The identical factor invariably occurs once I’m on a deer stand, and often my second guess is mistaken. However I by no means appear to study. 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 received 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 change into 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 top 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 approach.

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 relatively the white fluffiness of sifted snow. The sides of his ears alone don’t change colour 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 broad, 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 should have lasted not less than 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 saved rioting on.

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

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

“For those who fell in a effectively, you’d provide you with a trout in your pocket,” I stated, 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 good to fall into the entice, 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 mistaken 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. Generally these wild photographs join, as this one did, and people are
those you bear 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 another country. By the point he circle again, it was too darkish to shoot, and Dick needed to do some fancy operating to collar the canine. Once we received 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 night time 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 free 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 stated, “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 massive Squam lakes, it presents 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 sport pole final fall.
The place the white ribbon of highway turned steeply up the mountain, we left it and struck out by the laurel to the sting of the swamp. A north-country rabbit swamp, after all, isn’t actually a swamp in any respect within the typically accepted sense of the phrase. It’s really 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 stated.

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 the thick, summer time greenery, passageways which the winter snows betray. We may 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 little bit approach into the swamp after which be-gan to circle its edge. We may hear Denny’s pattering ft on the crust, and sometimes we may see his black-and-tan type flickering among the many evergreens as he wove forwards and backwards under us. Out of the blue his deep bass rang out in a difficult bawl. It rose time and again and turned to a rhythmic cadence echoing by the swamp. I ran to a gap and noticed a fast blur of white flash by 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 the comb to finish the chase.

The swamp was filled with rabbits. As Dick had stated, it was an untapped vein of snowshoes. By lunchtime we had 4 tucked away in our jackets, and fact 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 heavy cloth-ing. We had been on the far facet of the swamp by. now, shut below the moun-tain, and now occurred one of many strangest incidents in all my years of searching.

Denny had a rabbit up and away, dodging and twisting among the many evergreens. For 20 minutes or extra, the chase racketed by the swamp whereas Dick and I maneuvered for place. Then, as I stood beside an historical blow-down peering by 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 research. 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, should have been simply what occurred. The spot was jumbled with Denny’s tracks, however unimaginable because it appeared, one thing sooner than Denny, sooner even than the streaking rabbit, should have swooped out of the white silence and snatched it from forward of the canine. A snowy owl was Dick’s suggestion. At the least, it was the one reply we may give to the thriller.

Sure it’s that no animal within the north woods is extra relentlessly pursued than the snowshoe rabbit. Defenseless, aside from his built-in velocity, he’s the favourite meal of each predator. Hawks, owls, and eagles harry him from above; foxes, wildcats, lynxes, and weasels observe his trails by the swamps. When periodic epidemics skinny his ranks, the predators starve; in cycles of rabbit loads, the predators develop fats. The marvel of it’s that any of his form survive, however like his cottontail cousin he has his personal reply to the issue. Thrice a yr the does carry forth litters of two to 3 younger, and it’s this fecundity that retains the northern covers populated, come what could.

They’d actually performed a great 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 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 stated.

It was snowing tougher 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 may 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 assume he’d struck a deer observe,” he stated, 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, all of the sudden, Dick held up his hand.

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

I strained my ears, and over the hiss of snow by 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 path of the chase. Then I headed blindly by 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 methods with the sound. As soon as, canine and rabbit gave the impression to be coming straight towards me, however each of them handed by far to the facet.

I heard the muffled blast of Dick’s gun, however nonetheless the chase continued. After which, straining my eyes by 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 an extended strategy 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 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 searching, fraught with discomfort and uncertainty, however its rewards are commensurate with its frustrations. I knew that the subsequent time somebody stated, “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.