EARTH-STOPPING 137 



were stopped before it was light. What matters 

 that ? How long before light does a fox go to 

 ground at this time, when it is not light much 

 before eight o'clock, this being three hours later 

 than at other parts of the season, and they are 

 consequently more often stopped after the fox has 

 gone in than before ; — and a very little ingenuity 

 will extort this fact from an earth-stopper, that he 

 has often found his stopping removed by a fox 

 scratching out when he has gone to take it out 

 himself next morning, which accounts for many 

 blank days. This having been the writer's decided 

 opinion from observation, ever since he has been 

 a fox-hunter (and few men began more early in 

 life), that immediately on his undertaking the 

 management of a pack of fox-hounds, he com- 

 menced the following plan, to which he attributes 

 the fact of his not having had more, upon an 

 average, than three blank days in any four years 

 that he kept hounds, although in the same 

 countries from ten to twenty had been encountered 

 previously in one year. 



His plan was, in the beginning of October the 

 head whipper-in went round to every earth-stopper, 

 taking with him each day some matches, prepared 

 as described on page 116. Or gas-tar may be 

 rubbed against the sides of the earth within. 

 Three days after this has been done, the same 



