378 The Wilderness Hunter. 



where hounds and horsemen can work, no one would 

 think of following the fox. It is pursued because the big- 

 ger beasts of the chase have been killed out. In England 

 it has reached its present prominence only within two cen- 

 turies ; nobody followed the fox while the stag and boar 

 were common. At the present day, on Exmoor, where 

 the wild stag is still found, its chase ranks ahead of that of 

 the fox. It is not really the hunting proper which is the 

 point in fox-hunting. It is the horsemanship, the gallop- 

 ing and jumping, and the being out in the open air. Very 

 naturally, however, men who have passed their lives as fox- 

 hunters grow to regard the chase and the object of it alike 

 with superstitious veneration. They attribute almost 

 mythical characters to the animal. I know some of my 

 good Virginian friends, for instance, who seriously believe 

 that the Virginia red fox is a beast quite unparalleled for 

 speed and endurance no less than for cunning. This is 

 of course a mistake. Compared with a wolf, an antelope, 

 or even a deer, the fox's speed and endurance do not stand 

 very high. A good pack of hounds starting him close 

 would speedily run into him in the open. The reason that 

 the hunts last so long in some cases is because of the nature 

 of the ground which favors the fox at the expense of the 

 dogs, because of his having the advantage in the start, and 

 because of his cunning in turning to account everything 

 which will tell in his favor and against his pursuers. In 

 the same way I know plenty of English friends who speak 

 with bated breath of fox-hunting but look down upon rid- 

 ing to drag-hounds. Of course there is a difference in the 

 two sports, and the fun of actually hunting the wild beast 



