This snowy tale from Little’s history falls somewhere between “hunting story” and “dream”…
As with so many of his hunting tales, Little supplies no specific date for this anecdote; we’ll file it under 1700-1799 because it’s included in hunting stories from the “early times”.
13 February 1767
So did it become a pet? I hope so! Or (even better) when he shared it with family and friends let it go!
I did not like the moose killing story, not the telling, but just the way it was killed. In some ways, though, it might have been more – one on one and ‘fair’ than just shooting it! But, it was a bit by golly I’m going to get this moose one way or the other. And in those days it would have been great food and not just a trophy (story)!
Simon —
Based on the intensity of the 18th century survival struggle, you can be certain this fox did not survive the encounter. If you have ever tried to corner a wild animal & gather it into your arms, you will realize that the beast in question here probably did not even survive to the final panel of the comic. These visceral struggles between Predator & Prey gave no bonus points for cuteness, tidiness, or polite social convention.
In one direction, we might meditate on this when we consider the wars & politics that made this land available for the “early settlers” like Worthen & his kin. ( Q.V. https://livefreeanddraw.com/category/nh-history/french-indian-wars/ — Many more comics needed in this dept.! )
In another direction, we might want to consider the unimagineable expanses of barbarity & suffering that are perpetrated daily on a vastly larger scale NOW via our industrial factory farming system, so that our much larger population can consume food WITHOUT engaging in hand-to-hand combat with (and indeed in almost complete ignorance of) the wildlife around us…. How do you define “progress”?
I was shocked the first time I went out on the trapline with my grandfather (when I was a boy, back in the early 1980s) and watched him trap & club what I thought was a cute little representative of nature… To my grandfather, however, that otter represented a resource to be learned, conserved, appreciated, harvested, & traded to help him support & sustain his family & style of life.
— Marek
Live Free and Draw 