COURSING IN GREECE. 17 



several successive days, working at the pace of five miles an hour, 

 twenty hours out of the twenty-four. 



We were accompanied by fort}^ or fifty men on foot,, some leading 

 the dogs, which were principally of the jet black, long haired, 

 Turkish breed, far surpassing our greyhounds in beauty, but not per- 

 haps equal to them in speed ;* others were armed with long poles for 

 the purpose of beating the bushes. The ground selected for the 

 sport was a narrow valley, plentifully covered with brushwood and 

 shrubs, and watered by a small mill-stream that meandered along its 

 centre. The only level opening into this valley was that by which 

 we entered, the gorge at the other extremity being blocked up by a 

 hill that ran transversely to the two which formed its sides, giving it 

 the form of an elongated amphitheatre. The game-finders spread 

 themselves in all directions over the plain, while those who held the 

 dogs took their stations at its skirt, just at the base of its acclivity. 

 The horsemen, separating from each other, rode a few paces up the 

 hill, where they remained intently watching the operations of the in- 

 fantry in the valley. Knowing that a hare, when pursued, will take 

 a hill, if there happen to be one near, I thought the arrangement very 

 judicious, and was the less prepared for the scene that presented itself, 

 when at last the game was started. At the cry of " LAGOS! LAGOS!" 

 (Hare ! Hare !) all the dogs, and there were at least twenty of them, 

 were immediately let loose ,- all the infantry ran, and all the cavalry 

 rode to the spot whence the cry proceeded, as fast as their respective 

 legs and beasts could carry them ; and as soon as poor puss came in 

 sight, the bullets whizzed about her ears in all directions. The first 

 victim was the foremost dog : he was shot through the head by acci- 

 dent, or perhaps "pour encourager les autres;" but, be that as it may, 

 the hare escaped unhurt from twenty dogs, and a running fire from 

 fifty or sixty small arms. She crossed the brow of the hill and was 

 seen no more. At the end of the day's sport the return of killed and 

 wounded was as follows : 



* There is a breed of these beautiful dogs in Scotland, in the possession of a 

 gentleman of Aberdeenshire. 



M. M. No. 91. D 



