RECOVERING A CROSS SCENT 169 



may he be? Has he short ears and a long tail?" 

 "Yes." "Why, then, I can assure you, Sir, I have 

 seen no suck thing" 



We are agreed, that hounds ought not to be cast, 

 as long as they are able to hunt ; and though the idea, 

 that a hunted fox never stops, is a very necessary one 

 to a fox-hunter, that he may be active and may lose no 

 time ; yet tired foxes will stop, if you can hold them 

 on ; and I have known them stop, even in wheel-ruts 

 on the open down, and leap up in the midst of the 

 hounds. A tired fox ought not to be given up ; for 

 he is killed sometimes very unexpectedly. If hounds 

 have ever pressed him, he is worth your trouble : 

 perseverance may recover him, and, if recovered, he 

 most probably will be killed ; nor should you despair 

 whilst any scent remains. The business of a hunts- 

 man is only difficult when the scent dies quite away ; 

 and it is then that he may show his judgment, when 

 the hounds are no longer able to show theirs. The 

 recovering a lost scent, and getting nearer to the fox 

 by a long cast, requires genius, and is therefore what 

 few huntsmen are equal to. When hounds are no 

 longer capable of feeling the scent, it all rests with the 

 huntsman : either the game is entirely given up, or is 

 only to be recovered by him, and is the effect of real 

 genius, spirit, and observation. 



When hounds are at cold hunting with a bad scent, 

 it may then be a proper time to send a whipper-in for- 

 ward : if he can see the fox, a little mobbing, at such a 

 time as this, may reasonably be allowed. 



When hounds are put to a check on a high road, 



