HORNS, HOLLOAS, DOG LANGUAGE 91 



to prolong if not to save his life. Hounds are baffled, 

 the huntsman puzzled, and the units of the field are 

 arriving on the scene more or less exhausted by the 

 run, full of excitement, and all having plenty to say 

 about it. Suddenly the fox is put on his legs and 

 steals away down the drills or by the side of the 

 fence. Then the outcry arises, " Tally-ho ! Tally-ho ! 

 Yonder he goes!" &c., and, catching the contagion, 

 every one yells. This brings the hounds — leaping 

 wildly and bristling with excitement — not to the fox, 

 but to the shouters. Reynard's last effort puts a 

 fence between himself and the pack, and perhaps, 

 as I saw happen two years ago, he reaches the 

 drain for which he was making in the next field 

 but one. Had intimation been quietly conveyed to 

 the huntsman, and had the horsemen kept still 

 and silent, Reynard would never have left the field 

 alive. 



Last year we saw hounds run their fox to the edge 

 of a small half-frozen lake. Hounds went in after 

 him, and the fox was soon after viewed scrambling 

 up the shores of an islet in the middle of the lake. 

 This sight had such an effect upon a noisy feather- 

 headed whipper-in, that he let off a series of tally- 

 ho's and screams ; with the result that he brought all 

 the hounds back to him. Meanwhile, unseen by us, 

 the fox crossed the ice from the island to the main- 

 land beyond and eventually made good his escape. 

 Never was there such an example of the dangers of 

 a holloa. 



There is no doubt, however, that all sportsmen ought 

 to try and learn to holloa in the orthodox manner ; for. 



