IN THE three weeks during which the Washington sniper assassinated ten people, spreading fear throughout the region and distorting normal life, guess how many US citizens perished through guns?

Remember that the US has a gun culture formalised in a hallowed 'right to bear arms', which stems from the days When The West Was Won. So what might that three-weeks' deaths figure be? Maybe 60, or 70?

In fact about 1,600 people died by the bullet. The figure is the average of gun deaths in the US in every three-week period.

I learned this from a still small voice that struggled to be heard during the sniper turmoil. It came from a body rather clumsily named the International Action Network on Small Arms. Based in London, its mission is to curb what it calls "the increasing presence of guns in our communities''.

Worldwide, guns cost 300,000 lives, not only at the hands of terrorists but, as the Network's director puts it, "ordinary blokes carrying a grudge against society in general or against an ex-wife, rival or colleague''.

In Britain the curbs on guns prompted by the Dunblane and Hungerford massacres have done little to stop the criminal use of guns. But, against constant knocking of the controls as draconian, the US Washington experience is a reminder that, for once, we are ahead of the game. Meanwhile the US, the largest exporter of firearms, has been the most vigorous obstructor of efforts by the UN to check the proliferation of guns. As the Action Network validly pointed out at the height of the sniper crisis: "How sadly ironic that Washington finds itself terrorised by one or two people with a gun.''

A STORY published in The Daily Telegraph casts light on the role of hunting in fox control. A Suffolk correspondent recalled how his gamekeeper grandfather "was required to catch a fox and release it at a spot chosen by the local hunt''.

Apparently, this was a regular practice, for the correspondent described how "on one occasion'' the fox urinated on his grandfather, who became the hounds' quarry, escaping by climbing a tree. The hunt withheld the half a crown (12p) he was usually paid for providing the day's sport.

NOW springing up like dragons' teeth, the pylons imposed on the Vale of York after a ten-year battle look as bad as their protestors feared. Contrary to claims about siting to minimise the visual impact, the route seems calculated to cause maximum damage.

Striding well to the west of Thirsk before swinging down the Vale, the line twice crosses the East Coast main line. Towards Northallerton, one pylon is even being erected on the brow of a hill. Others that come over the Eston Hills spoil the panorama of the main Cleveland chain and can be seen from miles away.

And yet, we have 22 per cent more generating capacity than we need. Driving often under the existing Teesside-Vale of York power line, I find it now seldom interferes with radio reception. Perhaps it no longer always transmits power - while the tall new towers spread ugliness far and wide.