HOUNDS NOT CAST WIDE 221 



When hounds are at fault, and staring about, trust- 

 ing entirely to their eyes and their ears, the making 

 a cast with them, I apprehend, would be to little 

 purpose. The likeliest place for them to find the 

 scent, is where they left it ; and when the fault is 

 evidently in the dog, a forward cast is least likely 

 to recover the scent. 1 



When hounds are making a regular cast, trying for 

 the scent as they go, suffer not your huntsman to say 

 a word to them : it cannot do any good, and probably 

 may make them go over the scent : nor should you 

 suffer either the whip or the voice of your whipper-in 

 to be now heard ; his usual roughness and severity 

 would ill suit the stillness and gentleness which are 

 required at a time like this. 



When hounds come to a check, a huntsman should 

 observe the tail hounds : they are least likely to over- 

 run the scent ; and he may see by them how far they 

 brought it : in most packs there are some hounds that 

 will show the point of the fox, and, if attended to, will 

 direct his cast. When such hounds follow slowly and 

 unwillingly, he may be certain that the rest of the pack 

 are running without a scent. 



When he casts his hounds, let him not cast wide, 

 without reason ; for, of course, it will take more time. 

 Huntsmen, in general, keep too forward in their casts; 

 or, as a sailor would say, keep too long on one tack : 

 they should endeavour to hit off the scent, by crossing 



1 Hounds know where they left the scent, and, if let alone, will try to 

 recover it. Impatience in the huntsman, at such times, seldom fails, in 

 the end, to spoil the hounds. 



