THE FELL FOX 29 



quite at home in such places, even he sometimes 

 goes too far, and finds his retreat cut off, and an 

 impassable route ahead of him. There he crouches 

 until some too venturesome hound finds a way to 

 him, and unless the hound catches and holds him 

 on the ledge, one or other of them, if not both, 

 will be lucky if they escape death by a fall. 



I have seen a young hound fall with his fox 

 from a height of two hundred feet, and I can assure 

 you it is far from being a pleasant sight. This 

 season, 1919, 1 watched a fox run by the Blencathra 

 Hounds, take refuge on a blaeberry-covered ledge 

 on a small crag. Hounds could wind him from 

 the top, and at last one of them scrambled up from 

 below and walked right on top of the fox. Reynard 

 sprang up, the hound seized, but could not hold 

 him, and I saw the fox fall backwards off the ledge 

 as he wrenched himself free. Luckily the hound 

 had sense not to follow. Reynard fell a matter of 

 fifty feet, scrambled on to his legs again, and went 

 off, though it was easy to see he was badly shaken 

 by his fall. Not long after he went to ground, was 

 ejected, and finally killed. 



Hunting with the same pack on another oc- 

 casion, I saw a fox climb the face of a steep crag 

 overlooking Thirlmere Lake. Only one hound 

 out of the four couples which were running him 

 managed to make the ascent, the remainder going 

 round and out to the top by a different route. 



