FOX HUNTING. 3 I 



the back track. Another favorite cunning of the 

 fox was to cross a stream of water by leaping 

 from stone to stone, or by swimming the broader 

 ones, and even broad dams of water; or by taking 

 a shallow stream and running the course of it for 

 a distance and then taking out on the opposite 

 side; again, he would mount and run the top rail 

 of a fence, and perhaps take a cross fence the 

 same way, and then leap far from it to the ground 

 to resume his run. Again, he would run up an 

 incHning tree trunk and secrete himself in the 

 branches until the hounds passed, or if they 

 scented him and surrounded the tree, then it was 

 not an unusual thing for the fox to spring out 

 among the hounds and get away from them in 

 their interfering eagerness to catch him. And 

 again, he would run into the middle of a flock of 

 sheep in a field, and do all the sheep might, in 

 their fright, they could not get rid of him until 

 he chose to leave them. The result of these 

 tricks was a rest to him from his running, and 

 the hunter must be on hand to assist and en- 

 courage the lost hounds in solving the problem 

 of what trick the fox had adopted. A well- 

 known, large, white-tipped-tailed fox that gave 

 many a good run from the Miller and Tyler 

 woods, in several of the hunts lost the hounds, 

 when he tired of the run, in the midst of the same 



