Note 17 — Chapter XXV
Reading edition
The string must run, for a little way, behind the trigger (before passing round a stick) in order to start the gun: and it is this part of it that the fox gnaws. If we assume it to do so, as believing the trigger to be the part of the gun from which the discharge comes, still there are the two ideas—to gnaw the string, namely, thus preventing the discharge, and to get behind the trigger whilst gnawing it.