FOX AND HOUND. 91 
by it. The birds make a track in the air, only their 
enemies hunt by sight rather than by scent. The fox 
baffles the hound most upon a hard crust of frozen 
snow; the scent will not hold to the smooth, bead-like 
granules. 
Judged by the eye alone, the fox-is the lightest and 
most buoyant creature that runs. His soft wrapping 
of fur conceals the muscular play and effort that is so 
obvious in the hound that pursues him, and he comes 
bounding along precisely as if blown by a gentle wind. 
His massive tail is carried as if it floated upon the air 
by its own lightness. 
The hound is not remarkable for his fleetness, but 
how he will hang ! — often running late into the night 
and sometimes till morning, from ridge to ridge, from 
peak to peak ; now on the mountain, now crossing the 
valley, now playing about a large slope of uplying 
pasture fields. At times the fox has a pretty well- 
defined orbit, and the hunter knows where to intercept 
him. Again he leads off like a comet, quite beyond 
the system of hills and ridges upon which he was 
started, and his return is entirely a matter of conjec- 
ture; but if the day be not more than half spent, the 
chances are that the fox will be back before night, 
though the sportsman’s patience seldom holds out that 
long. 
The hound is a most interesting dog. How solemn 
and long-visaged he is — how peaceful and well-dis- 
posed! He is the Quaker among dogs. All the vi- 
ciousness and currishness seem to have been weeded 
out of him; he seldom quarrels, or fights, or plays, 
like other dogs. Two strange hounds, meeting for 
the first time, behave as civilly toward each other as 
twomen. I know a hound that has an ancient, wrin- 
